If Jesus’ followers never understood the Kingdom of God, it wasn’t for a lack of trying on Jesus’ part. Jesus provided great pictures of this kingdom, yet we still have difficulty making sense of it today. Perhaps we’ve tried so hard to make it look like our world today, that we’ve forgotten the most basic attribute of the Kingdom of God… the very presence of God.  He always has been and continues to be present even in the mess of our lives.

Whenever God is present, we have an opportunity to experience him in a new way. Whenever we experience him, we are changed. Whenever we are changed, we become agents of change in our world. We are called to bring the Kingdom of God to the world around us, but it all must start with a recognition of God’s presence in each moment of each day.

Do we recognize him and what he’s doing, or have we become so used to and cemented in our perspective of God that his true message is no longer accepted here in his hometown?

May you learn to recognize and experience God in new ways during this Lenten season.  When this occurs, we see that God’s presence alone is more than enough.