So what does Thy Kingdom come look like?
While I have missed a few days here and there really meditating on the Lord’s Prayer (from Pastor Brian Talty’s sermon in the Be Still Series that I mentioned here), I do try and use it at some point in my morning devotions each day.
I am finding it does have an effect on how the activities that follow pan out, as well as I am developing a deeper level of meditation as I go through the steps prayerfully before God.
This morning as I meditated on “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done…” I had this faint whisper of recollection regarding Jesus many references to what the Kingdom of God is like.
I pulled open the gospels and started searching for any heading that might give me insight.
A short search landed me in Luke 13 where Jesus is attempting to explain the Kingdom of God.
So here is my paraphrase this morning of verses 18-21….
The Kingdom of God…what is it like? What could I compare it to that would help you understand…hmmmmm….let’s see.
Well. The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.
A tiny little seed. And a man took that seed home and he planted it in his garden.
Now you know, that seed didn’t grow overnight like some magic Jack-in-the-Beanstalk fairy tale. He watered it and eventually a little shoot came out of the ground.
Maybe there were other little blades of stuff around it and so he had to be careful to not pluck out what he thought was a weed and end up destroying this baby plant.
He had to know what he was looking for…the shaping of a mustard tree.
Days and weeks and years passed but finally that seed grew into a large tree. A tree that various birds saw and were drawn to. A place to build a nest and raise their own baby birds.
Or you know…it is like that teaspoon of yeast that a woman will take and add to three cups of flour.
She adds a little water and oil and she begins to work the dough. She pushes it and kneads it. Over and over she folds it and presses again.
Her hands may begin to ache a bit, but she works until the yeast is completely blended…until every particle is bonded and it is no longer flour and yeast but one complete dough.
That…that right there is what the Kingdom of God looks like.
Thy Kingdom Come
Through the small ways that we take the Kingdom with us….out into our every day, ordinary lives and we work it into the life around us.
Patiently and diligently and purposefully.
Into…
Our homes.
Our work.
Our children.
Our neighborhood.
Not some big project.
Not some dramatic show of power.
The Kingdom comes in a daily tending of normal things like sowing seeds and making bread and changing diapers and turning in reports and teaching art and leading a bible study for teens and counseling a newly pregnant mom and coaching junior high basketball players…all the little things…done in His name and for His glory….this is what the Kingdom of God is like <3