Thirty-four years ago, tonight, an Elisha moment.

In the Second Book of Kings in the Hebrew Scriptures, Elijah has been teaching Elisha and the time has come for Elisha to start out on his own, but Elisha doesn’t want to know about it. Elijah tells him three times, “Stay here” and three times he says to Elijah, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.”

Elisha’s friends tell him twice that Elijah is to be taken away “Do you know that the LORD …