Heaven In Your Boots

Folks have a habit of treating the Kingdom of God like a piece of real estate in the next county, something you need a surveyor’s chain and a long-distance ticket to find. They’ve spent centuries squinting through telescopes and tinkering with "ghastly devices," trying to figure out if Heaven is five hundred miles up or five thousand—as if the Almighty were hiding behind a cloud like a shy debtor.

I’ll admit, I used to be just as thick-headed. I figured Heaven was a big blue bowl sitting just atop the stars, and I felt about as significant as a tick on a stray dog looking up at it. I got to thinking about how the world is a tangled mess of good and evil—how the same dirt that grows a rose also grows a nettle—and I fell into a "deep melancholy" that was lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut. Even the Bible, which I knew forward and backward, couldn't pull me out of the mud; the devil kept whispering "heathenish thoughts" in my ear like a persistent horsefly.

So, I decided to quit measuring and start wrestling. I took my soul and threw it at the Lord’s feet, refusing to budge like a mule at a creek crossing until I got a blessing. I delved so deep into my own ribcage that I finally broke through the gates of Hell and landed right in the center of God’s innermost being. It felt like a bridegroom finding his bride, or a man realizing he isn't dead after all.

And let me tell you, once that Light clicked on, the view changed. I saw God in the weeds and the crabgrass. I realized that the whole universe is just the Boss playing a tune on a cosmic fiddle, and we’re the instruments—even if some of us are a bit out of tune.

Now, you "little children of flesh"—and I say that with the same affection a farmer has for a particularly dim-witted calf—listen close. You don’t need to go soaring off into the blue to find your King. Heaven isn't a destination you reach via steamship; it’s right there in your boots. When St. Stephen saw the heavens open, he didn't look up so much as he looked in.

There ain't no "near" or "far" with God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are as everywhere as the dust on a Kansas road. If you want to draw near to Him, quit trying to jump over the moon and start walking into the "hidden secret place" inside your own soul. That’s where the "dark wheel" of your own stubbornness finally gets licked by the Light and Gentleness of His nature.

Heaven is an "uncreated" place that’s already open for business right where you’re sitting. You live, breathe, and think because of Him, so you might as well quit acting like a stranger in your own house. Step off the plank of your own wrath and find some rest in the mercy that was there before you even knew how to ask for it.