Like the Kingdom

For some time now I have been watching those soaring white barked sycamore trees that stand near the branch on the edge of the hayfield.  Maybe waiting is a better word.  Or, maybe the right word is anticipating.  Three years ago my youngest grandson who was four years old back then discovered the way those big-as-your-face sycamore leaves come drifting down to the ground.  The two of us watched those leaves as they started their journey to the earth and we ran and tried to catch them.  He ran, rolled on the ground, and laughed from deep in his belly as he tried to catch one.  His exuberance and laughter made a boy out of this old grandpa who ran and laughed beside him.  It has become a yearly ritual and each year I wonder if this year will be the last that a grandson wants to catch falling sycamore leaves with his grandpa.

 

So, as I watch those trees, there is a lot of anticipation.  I anticipate not just the moment of the falling leaves, but the boy laughing.  I anticipate sharing the unbridled joy again with him.  It must be like this in the Kingdom of God once it has fully come upon us.  Oh, I know Jesus said that the Kingdom is near, even here, but it is also still coming.  I suspect that the coming part is going to be exceedingly more wonderful than anything I might could imagine.  Surely, it will be filled with unbridled joy, deep belly laughter, and a giant exuberance for life.  Surely, it will be filled with young boys and their grandpas chasing sycamore leaves.

 

It seems that my Advent mantra this year has been those words from the most famous prayer ever prayed.  "thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven..."  Even as I have watched the sycamore tree, I have been watching those words, waiting on them, hoping that they will one day soon come to pass.  There is this part of me, and most likely it is true of all of us, that longs not just for a better day, but a new day.  We long for that day when our tears will turn into laughter, our cautious living will turn into rolling in the grass, and our death will become our life.  "Lord Jesus, make me hunger and thirst for the things of Your Kingdom.  Amen."