Who Art in heaven

We have such a convoluted and an ethereal view of heaven. Philadelphia Cream Cheese isn’t helping. I certainly know I cannot tell you ‘this is where and what heaven is’ in a conclusive manner. For the simple reason, I do not know. We know it is real, it has tangible qualities – God is there, Jesus will greet us personally, it will come to have its city on earth. We are given some ideas about heaven. Jesus tells us ‘it is at hand’. He tells that thief on the cross, ‘on this day you will be with me in paradise’. We have numerous references “the Kingdom of God is like….” We know that heaven itself finds its existence within the person of God – in that it is an extension of who he is – much like the earth itself.

It also tells us something of God – although he is infinite, he also has location – a specific address, so to speak. We all struggle ontologically – which is a fancy word for the nature of being or existence of God. We ask; where is God? Where do we ‘go’ when we die? How do we know that it a real place? And on and on the questions go. I have them, I know you do as well.
We speak of the omni-presence of God – He is in all places with equal presence and awareness – he is ‘close’, but He also has transcendence – complete ‘otherness’, He is above and beyond all that is. We often translate God’s presence as spatial - separate distance, close near, here or there. God is not governed or confined by the physics of time and space. He created them. God is not living outside or breaking the laws as an outlaw might – but they exist in, by, through and for Him. They exist because He exists, they are reflections of the nature and character of God.

If anything is true, we are the outlaws, and presently we living outside the Laws that God created to govern the world. We are not living according to God’s ‘natural laws’ at the moment – quite the contrary – sin is the invader, the unnatural law. We exist surrounded by the Kingdom of Heaven – the enemy kingdom itself exists as small almost immeasurable rebel outpost within the infinite borders of God’s kingdom. It’s all a matter of perspective. A poor example is like the Miami airport I recently visited in route to Haiti. Walking around that airport, it is huge – especially when you have to run from one gate to another. However, once you lift off the ground, the large airport becomes only a small element with the city of Miami itself, and becomes an unidentifiable dot at 33,000 feet. If I was able to afford the millions dollars for a ride on the Soviet space shuttle, my perspective would even be greater as I’d see the continent that Miami was one, but would be indistinguishable as its own identity.

We are surrounded by heaven, by God – we exist as a small dot inside it/Him. Heaven is bigger, infinitely bigger than earth. When we pray, “who art in heaven” we are not praying to some far off place and our prayers travel at the speed of light to get there. It is here and now enveloping us. We are separated by what is to God a thin veil, but to us a massive steal wall. We can’t break out without death, but by life God has entered in.
Anyway, I was just thinking.

Neil