Welcome to The Castle

My wife can’t park in the garage right now. And thankfully it’s not because we turned that space into storage. The problem is a whole kingdom has take my garage by siege! We’ve been slowly ordering a some new things for the house and now there’s a collection of large boxes, ripe for play. My daughters’ imagination have created gates and towers and gardens all throughout the area and most days I’m not privy to the password to get in my own house! It’s a wonderland if you know how to look at it.

Even though I grumble a little bit when I step through this creation, I can’t help but see God teaching me through my children’s play. I’m reminded of a line in a common prayer: “Your Kingdom come… on earth as it is in heaven.” Sometimes I forget that these are not just passive words asking for God to do all the work. When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray they were also asking how to live. What’s our mantra? is a more similar question. And so it should be for us, this prayer, this mantra, teaching us how to live and what to work for. In the bible we get a few glimpses of what the kingdom will look like. The expectations of Jesus ring loudly for me. Go read through the Gospel of John. But the full picture of heaven on earth? I think our wildest imaginations are the only thing that will get close to what God is working on.

So yes, somedays we will feel like we live in a cardboard house that gets damp and falls over. But how can we use our imagination each day to see where the boundless love of God is creating and recreating the world around us? How can we have eyes to see like a child the wonder of what could be? How can we take the small pieces God gives us and transform them into something glorious for the Kingdom?

Will you pray with me?

On Sunday mornings I try to remind everyone gathered that this prayer, while many might have grown up memorizing it, contains words that we are still learning. I say learning because we are still figuring out ways to put them to practice in our individual and communal lives. So let’s keep praying them until we get it:

Our Father in Heaven,

Hollowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.

Amen.

“Listening is the first act of loving.”

Steph