“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10 NIV)
Heaven and earth. Earth and heaven. In our popular imagination, earth is “down here” and heaven is “up there.” There’s a separation.
This line of the prayer Jesus taught us seems to suggest that when God’s will is done on earth, earth shares in some property or character of heaven. Earth glimpses heaven. Earth tastes heaven. And we see these. Thanks be to God.
But they are fleeting. Here and gone in a few moments. We simply do not sustain heavenly lives over time.
But one person did: Jesus.
For about three decades, earth and heaven actually intersected so that what was true about heaven was true on earth.
Praying for the coming of God’s kingdom is no less than praying for Christ’s reign to increase and prevail among the nations of this world. But it is also praying for Christ’s return. We must live in him and live as people who belong to heaven. But ultimately, we long for the day when the One in whom heaven and earth intersect returns to complete the heavenly invasion of earth.
Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus. May my life and the kingdoms of this world come under your gracious reign. Amen.
Guy M Williams 