“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” ~Matthew 13:16-17 (NRSV).
For many people, life is just too ‘real’ to believe in the existence of heaven. In other words, there’s far too much of the material world on display for them to be duped into thinking of nebulous worlds beyond. Evolution, for one theory, could be far more explicable to them than the thought of God creating the heavens and the earth over one seven-day timeframe.
A recent scientific find went a long way to prove there is a fabric making up the universe. It suggests that every part of the universe is interconnected; that whole galaxies, and even clusters of galaxies, share a certain sameness despite the incomprehensibility of it all.
One thing believers, atheists, and agnostics can all believe in is the sheer abundance of what many term, creation. The size and continuing expansion of the universe is one example of such abundance.
Perhaps it’s the person that insists God is behind it all, however, that Jesus suggests has eyes that see and ears is that hear; the secret revealed to these but not others.
“The
The parabolic theme of Matthew 13 could be: descriptions of what the kingdom of heaven is like. Between the Parable of the Sower, the Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat, the Parable of the Mustard Seed, and the Parable of the Yeast is a common concept: the kingdom of heaven is abundant. Its nature is blessing via growth, meek domination to sort the wheat from the weeds, to make large out of the minutest, and to permeate the entire mix.
The kingdom of heaven is irrepressible.
We might ask: is Jesus referring to the theoretical kingdom of heaven or the actual place? It matters little. If we can surmise the kingdom of heaven being, in essence, abundant, it is not a leap of logic to imagine the location of heaven, likewise.
The Commonality of Abundance
Abundance shares two other commonalities, both mentioned above.
For the worldly person caught up in the abundance of their everyday life—a life that is so enormous it crowds out any concept of God, Jesus, heaven, or significant thought of afterlife—there is no temptation whatsoever to change tack.
Yet, they already believe in the principle of abundance.
The person who stares above upon a starry host on a quiet reflective night wonders aloud within their spirit: just how big is this God to have created all this?
Both believe in abundance, but only one believes in heaven.
Heaven can be believed because of the concept of abundance that’s eternally present. Heaven is abundance—myriads more abundant, possibly, than even the known universe. And as heaven is abundance, so also is God. Nothing that God is or does is not abundant; even to the smallest piece of matter in comparison with entire creation.
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The thought of an eternal God, who’s supported so much history, and created so much, is too much for many—especially when there’s no compulsion to believe.
Such a loving God he is that complete freedom of choice and faith is given to us.
© 2011 S. J. Wickham.
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