Where Heaven Touches Earth

We use words willy nilly don’t we? I adore you. Chocolate’s the best thing on earth. I’ll die if I don’t get tickets to see (fill the gap). Oh I hate that band. This place is just heavenly. She’s perfect. We use words that if we considered their meaning we might not choose. But that’s ok, I know I shan’t really die if I can’t get those tickets. I know a cool glass of water would be more useful than chocolate, I know I don’t adore you I just love you a lot. But over the top language allows us to express depth of emotions we struggle to put into words sometimes. The problem comes when we do have something extraordinary to explain and we’ve used all the words.

For example, we sometimes do describe places as heaven on earth – a luxury resort or a stunning natural wonder for example. The Holy of Holies was the place God chose to dwell and meet with His people Israel. An awesome fearful place – you could literally die in there if you weren’t right with God. Only the High Priest could enter after the precise rituals of cleansing once a year. It really was the place heaven touched earth. The Ark itself was holy, people died from touching it without permission. Raiders of the Lost Ark might not be as fanciful as it seems should the Ark have been opened in the face of such wickedness.

Do you know that you’re now a place where heaven touches earth? We are filled with the Holy Spirit, the presence of God lives in us. I’m still considering the implications of that thought. It caught me yesterday during our prayer meeting when the worship leader sang a song with the phrase. The place heaven touches earth. I understand (in part) that this presence sanctifies and changes me. But what else? Is it just for me or is this the Good News I am carrying with me? Is this how I speak freedom to captives, sight to the blind, how I be light in the darkness and add salt to a flavourless world?

I think it is. I think that as I’m aware of the presence within me and walk out into my home, my neighbourhood, my city then I carry the Kingdom of God into those places. It’s a serious yet a joyful thing, not a burden or a chore it happens as I happen. It’s God’s work done through me as I be the child of God I am called to be. The child He empowers me to be by His presence. The child I was created to be. It’s revolutionary – no trumpet fanfare or red carpet but my two feet, my two hands, my eyes, my ears, my voice and His power directing and encouraging and enabling!

¹⁵ I don’t call you servants any longer; servants don’t know what the master is doing, but I have told you everything the Father has said to Me. I call you friends. ¹⁶ You did not choose Me. I chose you, and I orchestrated all of this so that you would be sent out and bear great and perpetual fruit.

John 15:15-16