Heaven breaking into earth--Kingdom moments in 2018

One of the purposes of my life is to help bring in the Kingdom. The Kingdom is a realm, a space, an experience where everything for a moment is right.  Heaven breaking into earth.  On this last day of 2018 let me share three moments when I experienced the Kingdom in 2018.  My hope for everyone reading this blog is you will have many moments yourself of experiencing the Kingdom in 2019.

One was on our family trip this past July.  My parents, sister’s family and us decided to go to Ely.  We were able to rent a cabin on a beautiful lake.  On the first night Amy and I went canoeing.  The experience we had is one that calls many to go north in the summer.  We started paddling and stopped talking.  The silence was beautiful. The sound of the paddle in the water was all that we needed to sustain us.  Soon we saw a loon—that beautiful bird that Minnesotans have identified as our own.  The bird that very slowly takes off from the water in an angle that is closer to 180 than 90.  The loon issued its call.  It’s a call that will stop a conversation between people.  The conversation will stop because something feels right about the world when that sound is heard.  Amy and I took our paddles and placed them on our lap.  We listened.  That’s all that is needed when something so majestic is around us. 

Sitting in a canoe on a beautiful July evening watching a loon with silence calling us.  This is heaven breaking into earth--the Kingdom.

A second is a series of moments that took place over time at Chain of Lakes. This past February the Building Team at Chain of Lakes was commissioned.  The Team was asked to develop plans for a first phase building.  As Presbyterians we naturally started brainstorming different types of community partnerships that could be established in the creation of a building that would address needs in the community.  Day Care, Pre School, maybe even a gym.  I volunteered to be part of a sub-group who would examine the possibility of building a gym. 

Our sub-group contacted the Blaine Basketball Association.  We asked them if a need existed for gym space.  Was there a need?  They shared that if we would build a high-school sized gym that it could be rented every night of the week from September through March.  Chain of Lakes could have thousands of people coming into our facility. 

We never would have imagined this.

Over time the Building Team embraced the concept of building a gym as part of the first building.  The Building Team told the Session of Chain of Lakes.  The Session embraced it.  The Session shared this idea with the congregation.  The congregation embraced it.  And over a period of six months Chain of Lakes was united on the concept of our first building.

I’m not surprised because building a gym makes so much sense.  But I’m surprised because reaching a place of unity is never easy.  It’s delightful to get to a place where a group of people can look at each other and say, “We agree on this.”  This realization didn’t happen in one particular moment.  This unity happened among a series of moments that “magically” seemed to be directed by an outside force.  I can’t prove that an outside force was directing these moments,  of course, but the ultimate landing place is so improbably and so delightful that I can only conclude that something was directing us.  This is heaven breaking into earth—the Kingdom.   

And a third moment was when Hannah passed her Driver’s Test in September.  She hadn’t been able to pass her Driver’s Test.  I didn’t doubt her ability to drive a car safely, but it didn’t matter what I thought.  The State of Minnesota made if very hard to even get a Driver’s Test.  As I tried to sign her up for a test in August I discovered there weren’t any openings for three months.  We even looked at driving to a faraway Minnesota town, staying overnight, and taking a test.  A three month backlog for a Driver’s Test? That is a system that needs changing.

One day in September I drove over to the Arden Hills Driving Test with hopes that I might be able to set up a test for Hannah.  When I got there I realized I was too late.  The door was locked.  I saw a flyer on the door and looked at it with hopes that it would have some information.  As I was doing this a car drove up.  A voice beckoned from the car, “Can I help you?” I walked up to the car saying that I was trying to set up a driver’s test for my daughter.  I told the man that I couldn’t get a test for a month.  “I tell you what,” the man said.  Come on Friday and ask for Mark and you can get in.”

Ask for Mark and I can get in?  After going on-line and not finding a test for three months?  After far-away places around the state and considering a road trip?

“Ask for Mark and you can get in.”

I called Hannah and told her the news.  We came on Friday and asked for Mark.  She got in right away.  She took the test.  And, of course, she passed.  For some back-up help I asked for prayer support from a small group of mine while she took the test.  And the date was Amy’s birthday

I couldn’t have planned or even anticipated that this would happen in such a way on this date.  This is Heaven breaking into the earth—the Kingdom. 

I experienced these moments, but they aren’t mine.  I believe they come from God who sustains us and who promises that these moments will continue to happen.

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