Heaven on earth

 

Jesus talked about heaven A LOT. Not as sitting around on a cloud for an eternity while a cherub plays the harp (as if parents hadn’t suffered enough at school concerts) but as the homecoming of our deepest longings, in this life.

When he talked about heaven, Jesus spoke in parables, analogies drawn between everyday life, with all its frustrations, and—in contrast—the fulfilment of those longings.

When his disciples asked why he spoke in parables, Jesus pointed to words spoken six centuries earlier, by the prophet Isaiah:

“See, a king will reign in righteousness,
and princes will rule with justice.
Each will be like a hiding-place from the wind,
a covert from the tempest,
like streams of water in a dry place,
like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
Then the eyes of those who have sight will not be closed,
and the ears of those who have hearing will listen.”

Isaiah 32.1-3

That is to say, Jesus was claiming to be the king who would reign in righteousness, and he was seeking out princes who would rule with justice—though, in fact, Jesus was unusual, in that he expanded princes to include women. Those whose eyes and ears would be open to him, who would respond to the invitation to be with him, become like him, and do the things he did.

Such men and women would be like a hiding-place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, streams of water in a dry place, the shade of a great rock in a weary land.

That is the kind of person I want to be. Someone to whom those who live around me turn when the storm hits them, because in me—by God’s grace, and on account of Christ in me—heaven can be found in my neighbourhood.