You know those old cars. Not the antique ones that are all prettied up, but the old ones that you can hear coming. They have their own particular rattle and rumble that you learn to recognize.
Here comes that old pick up with a faded pizza sign stuck on the roof, rattle, rattle, rumble, rumble. You can hear it coming from a mile away.
God’s old truck, driving around, all day long, finding people and giving them a job. Some people run up when they hear the rattle, rattle, rumble, rumble, others run and hide!
“You’re hired!” Jesus yells out over the busted muffler, “Come on then!”
God’s old truck, full up with people, like one of those clown cars where the clowns just keep climbing out. How many can it hold as it rumbles and rattles with splayed out tires down the road? “Come on then, you’re hired.” all day long. Everyone has a job. Everyone has work to do.
The kingdom of heaven is like that old truck. Always out there hiring everyone he can find.
The pay scale is kind of weird though.
It doesn’t matter how long or short your day, all are paid the same.
God’s kingdom is funny like that. It finds us and surprises us, a grace that has nothing to do with merit, and everything to do with gift.
The pay scale is all backward. Those who are left out the longest are paid the most for the least amount of work.
That is what the kingdom of heaven is like. It’s not fair. It is about something else entirely.
A Kingdom not of merit, but of gift and grace and searching people out.
The Kingdom is a surprise. It is like suddenly driving up to a whole city that you didn’t even know was there that has its own very different rules. It is no longer about things like scarcity, supply and demand it is now about searching out and gifting.
It is like waking up and finding out that life has never really been about producing and consuming, or cheating- all those things we try so hard to benefit from.
The kingdom of heaven is like waking up and finding that life is something else entirely, something much bigger.
It is like waking up to an immense new world where it’s not about who can get the most but who can give the most, where it is not about who can be the most resentful but rather the most thankful.
Where the greatest thing in the world is to see the gifts that God gives to others and to appreciate and encourage those blessings.
It’s quite a road trip from here to there.
The Kingdom of heaven is like a long journey in the wilderness slowly leaving slavery behind slowly learning to be free.
The journey from resentment to thanksgiving.
The conversion from grasping to giving.
A road trip to meet God. Come on then!
The kingdom of heaven is like a rude awakening, discovering that you had it all wrong.
It’s like waking up to the same old car rattling and rumbling by in the dark hours every morning.
You can hear it coming from a mile away.
That old pick up with a faded pizza sign on the roof, rattle, rattle, rumble, rumble, here it comes.
You wake up to it, wondering where it is going and why does it have to wake you up so early every day.
Waking us up, yelling out, “You’re hired! Come on then.” God is like that.
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