Right here, right now

Maybe the first one was Another Time, Another Place. It could have been Home Free.

Songs about Heaven. Good golly, Miss Molly.

I have a respectable collection of them. It includes some that focus on heaven like those two by Sandi Patty and Wayne Watson, as well as Not Home Yet, I Can Only Imagine, Where I Belong, Homesick, Finally Home, and When I Get Where I’m Goin’. It also includes old favorites which may devote just a single verse to either Jesus’ return or that day, like How Great Thou Art and Amazing Grace.

And for you fellow Heaven aficionados, I accept recommendations.

If you know me, you already understand. My dad and his dad, my first husband, Bill Burton, my granddaughter, Ana Olson, my mom’s mom and dad, Tim’s mom and dad, Andy’s mom and dad, so many more… I know they are just up there smiling with each other, waiting for us.

And then I heard this song by Hillsong, What a Beautiful Name. And it warrants a heretofore unprecedented second …

Good golly, Miss Molly.

These lyrics. Just wow.

You didn’t want heaven without us
So, Jesus, You brought heaven down.

Heaven right here. I know my life would have been very different had I been one of Jesus’ contemporaries. Even if I’d had the blessing of knowing Him, meeting Him face-to-face, hearing His voice – even if I called Him Lord, I could never have imagined the power of His words and the eternal impact of His life. So, no, I wouldn’t have seen Him as Heaven on earth.

But while He was here, He taught us how to pray. A prayer we spend a lot of time studying, phrase by phrase. We believe if we match the template, we’ll pray “right”.

We use His prayer as a kind of pattern:

• The well-known A-C-T-S (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication)
• The 3 main parts of prayer (Praise Him, Thank Him, Surrender to Him)
• Max Lucado’s Pocket Prayer (Father, you are good. I need help. Heal me and forgive me. They need help. Thank you. In Jesus’ name, amen.)

All good. Not a wrong or disrespectful word in the entire batch.

But, my lovelies, I’m here to say that, when we pray, we don’t really include a part when we ask Him to help us bring Heaven down here to Earth. We don’t view every single, ding-dang move we make or word we speak as an opportunity to give people a little glimpse of the glory and overwhelming joy we will experience.

Yes, we tell people about Jesus and tell them it’s simple to spend eternity with Him and tell them how. We build relationships and help out every way we can. We volunteer to meet people’s earthly needs. We give generously. We reach out. We pray hard.

Again, all good. Not wrong.

But we forget: The prayer does not say God’s will be done when we are “doing His work”. No, Jesus prayed that Earth would be like Heaven. He said “Your Kingdom come.” All of it. All the time.

My life is pretty medium. I’ve had my share of highs and lows. I’ve endured great loss and bathed in great blessing.

I pray that during that loss, those around me could see at least a bit of hope – the hope of Jesus, the hope claimed by the Psalmist…

For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
Psalm 71:5

And during times of great blessing, I hope that those around me could see joy and a grateful heart. Because really all we have to offer – even when we cannot speak or write or communicate in any way other than our character – all we have is a life, a window through which others can see into Heaven.

An answer to Jesus’ call that His Kingdom come to Earth, His will be done here – just like it is in Heaven.

Just like Heaven.

Just wow.

 

We each have a life, a window through which others could catch a glimpse of Heaven. Click to Tweet