God's Kingdom

God’s Kingdom

It had been another long day at work for Blake, trapped behind the desk that was sectoined off by three walls. A cubicle some called it, but he had another name for it. A death box, because every time he sat in it he felt a little bit of himself slowly fading away. It was supposed to be his dream job, something that sparked his interest and put food on the table for his wife and kids. The job had life in it for the first two years because everything was so new and exciting like an adventure where every corner held in it a new mystery to be solved. But finally, after seven years, nothing was new anymore. It became tedious, repetitve like pressing one single button on a keyboard for eight hours a day, five days a week.

All of it became the same after awhile. The same key being pushed into the ignition lock of the same car that drove down the same stretch of road that led to the same house he had bought when he first got his job. How astonishing it was that for this moment, something new happened in a string of events that had always been easy to predict. We always know when something is on the back of our hand because we know it so well, so when something entirely different is thrown in the mix, we are slammed into a wall that completely halts everything. It was on this very evening that Blake’s life was about to take a twist when even the smallest knot in this inseparable chain of events forced him to push on the brakes and see something that was…new.

“A ‘For sale’ sign? I haven’t seen that before,” Blake said with confusion in his tone, pulling over to the shoulder on the highway as tires rubbed against loose gravel. Someone was selling the field next to the highway, the same field he always passed coming home from work. It should have been expected because the field itself wasin such disrepair that the fences that cut it off from the rest of the road way was broken and it was left to the wild. Stalks stretched far up into the sky, high enough to make even a large man disappear inside of it’s mass vegetation. Something like this wasn’t exactly the most exciting thing in the world, but for some reason he felt compelled to go in the fields. No reasoning, no logic behind any of it. Nothing stood a chance of trying to justify this abnormal action. A simple man who knew nothing more than monotony made the decision to do something new.

Pushing open the door, Blake slowly made his way over to the broken down fence as cars rushed past him on the freeway with people looking over at him and wondering what was going through his mind. Not too sure of what was going on in his own mind, he took one step over the pieces of wood and stretched out his hands to brush away the large stalks of weeds that pressed against his suit. They were heavy to move out of his way as it seemed that the path that was originally used by the owner of the field had grown rampart with wild weeds sticking out and over to block any trespasser. That was not going to stop Blake though, because deep down inside of his gut there was a calling to push forward. The ancient and most honored tradition among men was to follow their gut instinct because it always held insight on what the next step was. Even if it seemed crazy, courage was always a test, and so was this one. Blake had found something to break tradition and now he was pursuing it with determination.

The sun was shedding off the last of it’s light as it began to hide behind the horizon, which made the field itself appear more mysterious than it had before. Visibility was low at this point, but thankfully the moon was taking the place of sun and shined off its brilliant rays. It was a beautiful portrait in the sky, orange and dark blue mixing to create a majestic purple in the sky before the sun had faded. The shoes Blake wore for work crunched against the decayed stalks that had fallen over due to a constant battle with the sun and drought. A hollow field in a way, producing nothing of use anymore and left to rot against the highway with none to tend to it. Undesirable, dispensible, easily thrown away but yet, there was a sense of mystery that drew him closer and closer until finally, it happened.

Because of the poor visibility, Blake was unable to see where he was walking and his foot became caught with something that forced his body forward with the shock of moving then coming to a sudden halt. He flung out his arms to brace the landing, keeping his head up as his chest bounced against the hard ground. “Ouch,” he muttered as he pushed himself up from the ground, kicking out with his foot only to hear a metal gently ringing against it self. His foot had found something in the ground, or better yet, something had come out of no where and grabbed him by the foot! Whatever the case was, Blake pulled himself over to the metal piece and tugged on it, only to find out that it was a ring itself attached to another piece. “What in the world…,” Blake said, his voice trailing away as he squatted down next to the ring piece. From the looks of it, it had to be some sort of door, but if it was…where did it lead to?

Shoot first, ask questions later, that was the creed of his life. Actions spoke louder than words, so with a violent tug Blake forced the wooden door open. Taking his cell phone that had an application to work as a flash light at times, which was really handy often times, he began to crawl into the small opening. From the looks of it, this hole in the ground had been lost for quite some time. All sorts of creepy crawlies were wandering in the hole, only to be scared away by the presence of a much larger and heavier being. Through all of this crawling he had tried to understand why he was doing this. Blake had a chance to turn back, to hop back into the car and drive away, leaving the unattended field to sway in the wind as it always did. In fact, he didn’t have to stop at all. But there he was, crawling his way through a dirty hole forgotten by time.

Nothing could have prepared him for what was about to come. Coming to the final stretch of the hole, the light shining from his phone began to reflect off of something. Curious, he pushed himself through the last opening and crawled out of the tunnel, astonished by the sight before him. “Oh my word…” was all that came from his mouth as his phone dropped from his hand and hit the dirt. How convienent that the light shined against a lantern that had some oil remaining inside of it. Diving for it, he reached inside of his pocket fervently and pulled out a light blue lighter. Blake opened the latch on the side of the lantern and lit the wick, fire licking the rope gently and igniting in to glorious light. It filled the entire room, showing off the treasure that had been resting underneath this field for who knows how long. Excitement surged through his body like electricty as his hands ran through his hair, unable to keep himself from laughing at such a find! “This is amazing!” All of it was too much to take in, but then reality hit him like a brick wall. Taking any of this would mean stealing because he did not own the field, so that presented a problem.

Then another wall hit him. In his excitement, and sudden anguish, Blake had forgotten that the field was for sale. If he bought the field then he could have all of this for not only himself, but his family! There was no time to wait. Picking up his phone and blowing out the lantern, Blake desperately crawled out of the tunnel and out of the door. Not wanting anyone else to find it, he re-hid it under the brush that had made it difficult for him to see and began to run off to the sign. Almost tripping over the broken fence he had used to enter the field, he raced over to the for sale sign and began to study it for any signs of an address or phone number. Success had bit him at last for a contact number was found at the bottom. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

Blake had to redial the number three times due to his excitement, unable to calm himself down. Like a child on Christmas Day, he had found something that would change his life forever and break him out of this monotonous bondage of everyday life. The phone was ringing, Blake anxiously waiting for the other person to pick up which felt like eternity.

“Hello! Hi there sir, I saw that you have some land for sale. I was wondering how much you were selling it for.”

The excitement was clear as day, until suddenly…

“Uh huh…that much? Wow…well thank you sir.”

Defeat hung in the air like the stench of rotting food as Blake tried to come to grips with the reality that he just didn’t have what this man was was asking for. In order to come up with that kind of money, he would have to sell his house, the second car, all of the possessions, and not to mention take everything out of his bank. There was a gripping feeling inside of his chest that told him to give everything up for this. Something bigger than him was at stake here, so how could he just give up a chance of having this treasure belong to him. It was going to be tough, that’s for sure. His wife and kids were not going to understand or even accept this choice, but as the man of the family, the household, he had to lead his family to something bigger and better than they have ever seen.

The drive home was longer than ever before as he played various scenarios in his head about how the conversation with his wife would go. ‘Honey, I am selling the house and everything in it and buy the field next to the highway. I have found something amazing that can change our lives.’ In his head, it sounded like a compelling argument, but of course his wife was going to raise questions about it. Such as, ‘have you lost your mind?!’ He couldn’t let that stop him at all. Blake found something that drove him to do something borderline insane, but that was something he had to risk in order to pursue something as amazing as this. In the end, she would understand and embrace it with him.

He pulled into the driveway and let out a final deep sigh before heading out into what was about to become the lion’s den. Never had it been so difficult to grip the doorknob to his house. Opening it, he was met by the thundrous roar of loud footsteps bounding down the staircase and racing to the door. The exclaims of “Dad!” almost caught him by surprise as two boys rushed him, wrapping their arms around his waist in a tight embrace. “Hey boys! How are we doing tonight?”, Blake asked with a smile curling his lips. This was followed by the voice of his wife, a beautiful woman with auburn hair staring at him with curiosity. “You’re home awfully late, honey.”

“Yeah, I got caught up on the way here. Sweetie…we have to talk. Boys, head upstairs.”

“Aww…c’mon!” they cried. They never got to be involved in the grown up talks and as usual, were finding ways to get out of tromping upstairs.

“Noooo. I have to talk to your mother.” It was all he could say to them before they finally, in the usual defeated manner, made their way upstairs. Now that step one was over and done with, he had to get through step two, the impossible step to get through. Escorting his wife to the living room, Blake sat her down on the family sofa while standing across the room as if he was about to give a presentations. “Okay, so before I begin, promise you won’t explode and get hysterical.”

“What? Just get on with it.” she said, obviously brushing that statement away as she leaned into the couch. Taking that as a “Yes honey, I will listen to what you have to say and be okay with it”, he began to pitch the idea of what he saw today and what he was planning on doing. Once again, the theory of it all was flawless, until…

“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!?” she exploded in a hysterical manner. So it didn’t turn out like he had wanted, but it was expected that she might have acted in such a manner. This began a long string of conversations that lasted well off into the rest of the night. She went from livid to irritated, then finally calm after Blake expressed how he came across it all. Whatever had brought him peace about such a ludicrous endeavor, it was finally settling in with her. Naturally, she held her reserves about the entire thing but grasping Blake’s hand, she nodded in agreement. “Okay…okay. I trust you with this. You hadn’t led this family away so far, so why should now be any different.” Elated by her statement, Blake embraced his wife and began to describe, in great detail, how all of this was going to be accomplished. After a night of sleep, it all started.

Selling his house in a reasonable time frame had to come first. Blake was practically selling a fully furnished house for an entire family and two days after calling a realtor about selling the house, a buyer had expressed interest. Incredible, nothing like this seemed possible to Blake. In fact, it all seemed like dream rather than reality, as if everything was going to fade away and he would find himself in his bed just to continue the daily rituals that consumed his life. But this was really happening. The house was sold, any possessions that the buyer did not want went to a garage sale. ‘Everything must go’ was the slogan, as it really did have to go in order for Blake’s entire family to fit inside of their car with just enough luggage for all of them to store clothes. The owner of the field was kind enough to hold off selling until they could get the money in. With the money in his checking and savings, combined with what they had received in selling the house and the garage sell, they had not only the exact amount for the field, but just a little over.

“Well, it’s an old field with a lot of problems but…here ya go son,” said the old farmer as he handed over the deed to the land across the table. Without hesitation, Blake smiled as he scribbled his signature and held the deed close to him. “That’s not a problem at all, sir. Thank you so much!” Blake reached out and shook the man’s hand violently due to his excitement, catching the old man off guard and almost falling. “Gee whiz, boy. Ya sure do got a lot of spirit in ya for buying a dingy old field.” The old farmer couldn’t believe as he laughed to himself, walking away from the table and rubbing his shoulder after the intense handshake.

“C’mon, it’s just over here!” he yelled back to his family as they trailed close behind him through the thick stalks. Grabbing onto the ring that had granted him access to the hidden find last time, he quickly brushed away all of the fallen pieces of vegetation that was used to hide it before ripping it open once more. Leading his family through the tunnel, the groans and complaining of his wife about the bugs and the excited chatter of his boys talking about the cool beetle that crawled away from him filled him with eagerness. He was about to show them something they have never seen before, something that meant more than anything to him. More than his house, more than his job, more than all of the money he could ever have; all of it was garbage compared to having this one great thing.

The lantern flickered to life once more, and to his joy he could see the faces of his family as they stared at the greatest thing they would ever see. His wife, practically at a loss of words, could only whisper, “Oh wow…”

“Uh huh! Didn’t I tell ya!?”, Blake jubilantly said, pointing directly at the one treasure that was greater than all things.

Matthew 13:44 “God’s kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic- what a find!- and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field.”