The Kingdom of Heaven is like ...

"The kingdom of heaven is like ..." Jesus says 11 times in Matthew.  And every time He uses a parable to describe it.  I get the impression that He is trying intently to describe something that He knows is hard for us to understand and so He applies story after story to show the many sides or facets of this topic.  Seven of these parables are in Matthew 13. 

I find this whole chapter humorous from a teacher-student viewpoint.  Jesus starts the conversation by speaking to the multitudes in parables, specifically the one regarding the Sower.  The disciples then ask Him why He speaks to them in parables and Jesus answers because it is not given to them (the multitudes, not the disciples who He says can understand) to understand the kingdom of heaven.  He then follows this by telling the disciples seven straight parables.  Obviously, the disciples needed some remedial training as much as I do. Whoa unto me whenever I think I understand something!

But Jesus had a clear intention regarding clarifying what "the kingdom of heaven is like."  In verse 16, Jesus presents to us how blessed we are if we are able to see what God is doing and hear His message and instruction on our hearts.  This seemingly simple thing, this communication we take for granted, is the greatest blessing our lives will ever have.  This verse is the key to the following seven parables that follow it.

The ability to know God, to feel His presence of Spirit, to hear wisdom in words or depth of heart, to see God in His Creation or in the expression of love to another, to experience a dwelling inside that overflows and encompasses all of who you are, completing every aspect of what you know yourself to be and filling every hole in your being.  This is what you will value above everything else in this world  (v 44).  This is for what you will "sell out" (v 45-46).  And if we will let His word take root, it will grow to be the greatest structure in our lives, so much, that all the other parts of our life will depend upon it (v 31-32).  Then we will bear fruit ourselves (v 23).

Blessed are we who have not had His Word "snatched away" from our heart by Satan (v 19).  For we will be separated from the wicked (v 41-42, 49-50) and taken to the Father to be with Him when all is passed away (v 43). 

Treasure your communication with your heavenly Father more than your own life.  Love all the time you have with Him knowing this is where life truly resides.  Keep your eyes and ears open, looking and listening to where He is leading and to what He is conversing.  That life, focused on that conversation valuing it more than anything seen, heard, or experienced physically, is what the kingdom of heaven is like.