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Girl Meets God
by Melissa Mathews
is to feel ourselves at home here on earth.
-- Malcolm Muggeridge
On the one hand, this has been an amazing week (that's a story for next time). On the other hand, it's been filled with unpleasant things.
I had a girl in one of my ninth grade English classes be very disrespectful. Later the same hour she used a VERY inappropriate word to describe a character in the story we were reading. When I corrected her after class, she was shocked to hear that the word was a curse word. I also had candy stolen from my room, kids talk back, and kids throw paper wads in front of my eyeballs, then lie about it.
But don't think too harshly about these kids. I've also been around adults this week who did things that were a bit shocking too. I'll be very vague in order to spare the guilty parties. Someone brought beer to a place it should not have been. I heard more than one badly chosen word. I saw more than one parent treat her child in an ill-mannered way. (And that doesn't even include me.)
By the end of today, Scott and I were feeling a bit dragged down by it all. I was more than just a bit dragged down by it.
I could only think "uuuhhhhhggg." And I could only think it in a very low, mournful, my-face-has-lost-all-movement sort of way.
"Ouh, where is the peace?" I thought.
"Where is the joy? Where is the order, the safety, the holiness?"
On earth as it is in Heaven.
When can I stop worrying about money, and someone breaking in my house, and losing weight, and getting old?
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. (Matthew 6:10)
When can I quit watching the TV with fear and trepidation at what horrible images might be forever seared onto my boys' minds? When will I stop hearing words that bear only bad vibes? When can I experience all nice people all the time?
Heaven.
Maybe that's why Jesus told us to pray that way. He knew it would get awfully nasty down here at times. He knew that the grossness would be hard to stand at times, and if it got too bad, we might be overwhelmed.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
But if every so often we see unconditional love in a couple that's been married longer than we've been alive, or if we get a hug, or hear a beautiful greeting, that glimpse of heaven might be just the thing we need to keep believing. A little bit of God's Kingdom on earth might be just the thing we need. It might be just the thing someone else needs too.
-Heinz, 18th century philosopher.
Scott and I have been married 22 years and currently live in Northern California where we are beginning year five as church planters. I also teach 12th grade English and love it.
I would love to hear from you. Email me anytime at melissa.g.mathews@gmail.com
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