“One day children were brought to Jesus in the hope he would lay hands on them and pray over them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus intervened: “Let the children alone, don’t prevent them from coming to me. God’s kingdom is made up of people like these.”
– Matthew 19:13- 15a
Well… there it is… God’s kingdom has citizens. And it seems children are the model. You know… innocent… trusting… eager… questioning… filled with hope and energy… and always in need of blessing as we all know children … especially the littlest of them… rarely get far on their own.
So… perhaps one way to look at God’s kingdom is to see it as a world or reality or condition or a way within the world we live in… a better way perhaps… like in Brazoria and Galveston counties have boundaries. Texas has a state line. The US of A is surrounded by water and two countries to the north and south and the Kingdom of God is found and lived out within and across and around those borders… and even this… as Jesus said… “the kingdom of God is within you…” you… and me… and in sinners and saints… in believers and non-believers… the fully devoted and the backsliders… because the Bible is clear that God’s kingdom is not ours to control… in fact… Martin Luther once wrote explaining the petition in the Lord’s Prayer… ‘your kingdom come…’ this way… “The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also…” or at least we’d keep on the lookout so the kingdom doesn’t pass us by!
Having no boundaries then… the kingdom of God shows up just about anywhere… to provide blessing to the creation and to benefit even the children… as children learn all too soon enough that life is harsh and unfair on its own… a collision of love and sacrifice even.
Fr. Richard Rohr recently tweeted… “Love and suffering are part of most human lives. They are the primary spiritual teachers more than any Bible, church, minister, sacrament, or theologian. Wouldn’t it make sense for God to make divine truth so readily available?” How about that? God using whatever… like love and pain to point us to the kingdom… faith matters… in love and in pain!
According to the New Testament, the kingdom of God is something that we should “seek” before all other things… and yet… I would contend that a truly full and total understanding of God’s kingdom is still not ours to grasp when the world remains full of questions to be considered along with inconsistencies and realities that drop us to our knees in prayer and desperation… as a colleague of mine shared with me recently… “I think most people relate the ‘kingdom of God’ to ‘going to heaven…’ and thus the confusion as the kingdom of God is not something we need to wait for… Jesus said the kingdom of God is ‘at hand…’ as in right now… right before our very eyes and that even one simple requirement to be part of that kingdom is to listen for the truth… after all Jesus did point out… “whoever has ears to listen…” is fully ready to share in all God has to offer.
What is about God’s kingdom that is totally clear to you? Do you have questions about the kingdom of God? Questions that might even keep you up at night? We’ll get this… remember… Jesus said, ‘have no fear little flock… for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom…” and thus… what God won’t do to show us a holy way of living … for the benefit of all… and no wonder Jesus insisted on blessing the children…
