One Way Mirror

Lately, in a lot of what I'm reading and hearing from my pastor, a certain quote from Jesus has consistently been mentioned and explained. I have heard it explained that when Jesus said " the kingdom of God is at hand" it can be translated as the Kingdom of God being at arms length. Last Sunday, in my pastor's sermon, he mentioned the story of Stephen and, specifically, the part where Stephen said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God". I have always pictured that scene in my head where a little circle opens up in the sky and it's as if Stephen is able to view heaven in the same way you might look into a house far away on a hill through a bay window. But as I began to think of this scene in the context of the Kingdom of Heaven being at arms length, a totally different picture emerged in my head. I think of one of those mirrors that you see in the police station in movies all the time where the person in the interregation room can only see a mirror but on the other side of the mirror, other people are able to look in on the occupant of the room. But the mirror I'm picturing is way bigger, like a one way mirror that encompasses the entire sky...and when Stephen was allowed to look into heaven, it was as if someone had flipped on the light switch on the other side of the mirror and there right in front of Stephen was a sweeping, breathtaking view of the throne room of God Almighty that filled up the entire breadth of the sky...and at that moment where Stephen could have easily felt the loneliest, he was given the opportunity to see just how close Jesus really was in the midst of the horror of being stoned to death...and then to not only see the proximity of Jesus but then to see Jesus stand at the right hand of the Father as if to honor Stephen in the presence of the Father and the millions of others there in the courts of Heaven..it must have brought Stephen incredible comfort in his last few seconds to know just how close the Kingdom of God was...

aliens and strangers

Last Sunday, as my pastor was preaching, i began to chew on something in particular that he was preaching on. he talked about how so often, we as believers can mistakingly focus on someday leaving earth and going on to heaven. This line of thinking isn't exactly biblically correct. Based on scripture, it's not like God is going to blow up everything and start over. When scripture speaks of a "new heaven" and a "new earth" it is more referring to an earth and a heaven made new, or restored back to God's initial intent. So maybe we don't need to be so focused on getting off the earth. I resonated greatly with this message but my mind (as it is prone to do) began to wonder to the verses where we as believers are described as "aliens and strangers" in this world. So if this is our home, or at least it will be when we take our place on the "new earth", then how are we also aliens and strangers here.... then it came to me, its the same way that Nashville is no longer home to me. Although my wife and I were both raised in the Nashville area, we have not lived there for ten years now and a lot has happened since we called it our home. Buildings have been built, and buildings have been torn down. People that we knew there have moved away and many new people have moved in. I couldn't even find my way around my college campus because of all of the new growth there. When I am there, nobody is where they are supposed to be on a Friday night. The party crowd is not hanging out in the United Methodist parking lot, none of the people that I went to school with are at the High School football game, nobody knows that I was the Sr. class president (not that anybody cared then either), or that I used to sing "Mac The Knife" at just about every talent show I sang in (sad but true..) maybe that's what made it home...it's when people know you. When people know what you're about and what's important to you.. and then my mind goes to Jesus. What was it like to walk around Nazareth or Jerusalem and not be known...what was it like to have been there at creation and see the earth in it's pristine beauty and then to walk in it thousands of years later after sin had had generation after generation to devolve and deform all of creation...how sad was it to walk among the people that he had created and be a total stranger. I think when Jesus said, "this is not our home (anymore), we're just aliens and strangers here," it had to be with tears of deep sorrow and sadness that his disciples couldn't possibly understand...