You are Heaven

⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, ¹⁰ your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. ¹¹ Give us today our daily bread. ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ¹³ And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”

– Matthew 6:9-13

What is the most ideal and comforting place to be? For myself, it is in the comfort of my home when I am spending time with my wife, family and closest friends. We all have a place where we feel most comfortable, secure, and at ease with being ourselves. These places and people whom we feel such attachment or emotion is a familiar scent to what is even more true of what we know to be of heaven. Jesus guides us in a prayer that speaks to not only God the Father, but is also a call for us to respond in our daily lives.

Heaven is not only to be experienced after death, but before it. The experience of heaven is something we can bring here on earth as people who are part of God’s family. Heaven can be experienced in the midst of our homes, our workplaces, our schools and even in church.

See, church can either be a really positive experience – one of love, support, of grace filled community. But it can also be like experiencing hell. A place filled with those who are self-righteous and hypocrites – those who are judgmental more than they are loving. But we need to make a conscious choice as to how we decide to make our experience of Church – we can leave because of how unheaven-like it is, or we can choose to be Christ-like and be an ambassador of heaven within the conflicts of life – someone who exemplifies and practices grace.

You are a part of heaven. If we are a part of God’s kingdom and we are destined for eternal life, then you are able to share a glimpse of that here on earth. You are filled by the Holy Spirit for a reason – so that a peace of heaven may be alive here on earth amongst death and the suffering. Through loving your neighbors, and by your very actions and prayers you bring heaven here on earth to those who may feel as though this life may be like hell to them.

When we look to Christ, we look not only upwards, heavenwards, we ought also to look inward and outward. We look inward in a sense that we ought to choose the grace-filled attitudes of Christ both to ourselves and the way we think of our neighbors, no matter how undeserving they may be. Second, we look with heaven-like eyes outwardly – to be a person of action that seeks to love, to serve, and to display patience, grace and compassion to our neighbors. That no matter what experience that feels and looks like hell in your life, you would choose to look at it with kingdom eyes.

Today, even if all hell has broken loose in your life, remember that we have a choice to live in recognizing the greatness of God’s presence to be greater and more powerful than that of darkness. John 12:46 says: “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” You are a part of heaven, and you have also been given the power to bring a piece of it here on earth wherever you go – to be a blessing to others as the Lord has blessed you with his unconditional love, hope, faith, and peace.