Someday I would like to visit our nation’s capital in Washington and take a tour of the White House. What a thrill actually to stand in that place which is the seat of so much power here on earth! How exciting to see the actual location of so many important historical events!

When I visit the White House I’d like to have a personal audience with the President. Just a few minutes to shake hands, have a photograph taken and discuss whatever might be on my mind. Obviously, that part is just a dream. I doubt very much whether I or any average visitor to the White House would have the opportunity actually to spend time with the President. He is a busy man and, of course, there are the security concerns to consider. For good reason, having a personal conversation with the President is probably out of the question.

There is one way such a visit would be possible. If I happen to know someone who is close to the President, say one of his chief advisors, maybe he could arrange for me to have a meeting with him. Sometimes knowing the right person is very helpful.

It’s okay, though, if that meeting never happens, for as a baptized Christian I have a daily opportunity to come before the almighty God of the universe. The reason I can do this is that God’s Son is my brother. Three days after giving up His life for me on the cross, He rose from the dead. Forty days after His resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven. The Apostle Paul tells us that the great power of God is at work among us who believe in Jesus Christ. “That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 1:20). So we confess in our services each week that Jesus Christ “ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”

What does it mean that Christ sits at the right hand of the Father? Some believe that since His ascension to the throne of heaven Jesus is forever confined to one place according to His human nature. Others may think that as He holds the position at the right hand of God, He does not possess quite all the authority of God—close, but not fully in control of all things. Paul explains it for us when he writes, “And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way” (Ephesians 1:22,23).

What a tremendous source of comfort we have in the fact that Jesus, who remains fully God and fully man, is at the right hand of the Father. It means that we have a holy Friend in the very highest place who guides and directs everything on earth for the sake of His believers. It means that Jesus is with us always, is aware of our every need, and that He intercedes with the heavenly Father on our behalf, successfully pleading our case on the basis of His own sinless life and innocent death for us.

We may never have access to the great powers that exist on earth. But through Jesus Christ, who ascended on high and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty, we have the assurance of God’s constant attention and care over every aspect of our lives!

John Petersen is the pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Vero Beach, Florida.