Where Is the Kingdom of God?
“The kingdom of God does not come with observation. Nor will they say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For remember, the kingdom of God is within you.” — Gospel of Luke, 17:20–21
“If your leaders say to you, ‘Look, the kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty.” — Gospel of Thomas, saying 3
If the kingdom cannot be pointed out, or pointed at, you cannot point at Jesus and say about the kingdom, “There it is.” You also cannot point at your mind or chest and proclaim, “Here it is, within.” Obviously, you also cannot point at any realm (let alone institution!) and insist that that specific realm is where the kingdom resides.
What is that which cannot be observed because it has no form of this world, yet is always obvious and at hand because it is within as well as among you? What is that which is here as everywhere, yet must be entered? Look around with unassuming and curious eyes of a child and all you will ever see is omnipresence. And even that is but a limited word that, as any and all words, can also conjure various insane flights of fancy in an ignorant mind full of expectations.
Can you see God’s face
Unmistakably serene
In the grain of sand?
Can you see God’s face in the features of your enemy? Can you see it in what iris of your beloved reflects? There it is, for God and his kingdom cannot be separated, for God and his kingdom, his so-called absolute attributes, are literally one and the same (no-)thing. And to know God, find out who you are.
Search no further.
