But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

 - - - From Romans 8:12-25

We do not know what the Kingdom of God will look like. We can imagine it. There are descriptions of it. I think the best description of it is that it's just life, forever. Humanity longs for a fountain of youth, so that we can live forever. It's continuing on, like we do today, but forever, and ever, and ever. That's the Kingdom of Heaven. And somehow we intuitively know that it must be real. We can't create life out of unlife. We don't understand this. Yet someone did. That person is God, and we trust that He has a way to make life last forever.

But we can't see it. We haven't seen it. Not with our waking, conscious, eyes. True, some people in history have had visions of it. But there were no bystanders to confirm what they saw. Nobody had a camera ready to record it. But just as we can't see the future . . . but without doubt, it is there; and just as we can't see the thoughts of others . . . but know that they have them. So it is with the Kingdom of God.

I have experienced life. I understand that. Yet I can't see life. The energizing force of life is invisible to us.

What a wonderful concept! If God has activated that life force, in anybody . . . isn't it something to marvel at? We live, at the pleasure of someone else! And He loved us enough to bring us into being!

And if we think about that for a little bit, we understand why it was so important to the Apostle, Paul, to get our thoughts and actions away from the physical, the mortal . . . away from these present, immediate, worldly, fleshly needs. Away from our drives, and cravings . . . away from the things we do more out of instinct, like an animal, (have you ever seen a dog go after a bone tossed in his direction?), and towards the things we must wait for . . . the things that require thought, and rest, and prayer.

The things that require patience! You cannot hope for what we cannot see, what takes so long for us to have . . . without learning patience!!

And then just like that we are no longer driven by our . . . well . . . drives. We are now activated by the spirit of God, the Power of God. It is less about us. We are in awe of life . . . whatever it is . . . and we want to sustain it. We are passionate about seeing what it becomes . . . we can't wait to see the possibilities inherent in any life that grows.

We love life. We should love seeing it, and witnessing it, however it appears, and whatever it does.

Even if it requires a lifetime of patience.