I don’t know about your house, but we have tiny gnomes in ours.
They take small things, like car keys and eyeglasses, and hide them until we are sufficiently exasperated. Then they put them out in the open, in plain sight.
Well, I’m kidding, of course. But how often have you spent time searching for something only to find it was right in front of you all along? Those who heard Jesus were presented with a similar situation.
What did the Pharisees ask? How does it NOT come? Where is the kingdom of God?
Maybe we should ask ourselves, what is the kingdom of God? Most people would imagine it to be that time when Jesus has returned to earth, all evil and suffering has been done away with, and we all live in peace and happiness. We can see the kingdom of God as some far-away time, an idyllic time, something we can all hope for and look forward to, but something that is far in the future.
Yet Jesus changes all that. The kingdom of God, according to Jesus, is not that time that we look for in omens and signs. It is not something that we can achieve by carefully obeying the strict religious rules that govern behavior. Instead, the kingdom of God is within us.
So, the kingdom of God must be a way of feeling, a way of thinking, a way of acting. The kingdom of God must be caring for others, loving others, forgiving others, and praising God.
That time when death and suffering and sadness are gone does not have to be in the far distant future. It can be now, if we could all learn to live out the commands of Jesus – love God; love your neighbor. If we could be transformed by a new mind, if we could live a life of worship, then we can experience the kingdom of God because we will be part of the kingdom of God. If we can learn to share our love and awareness of God with others we can bring the kingdom of God to ourselves and those around us.
DAILY CHALLENGE:What does the kingdom of God look like to you? How can you live so it becomes a reality?
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