They Live Lives of Miracles

If someone were to ask me that classic evangelical question, “What has God been teaching you lately?” my answer without a doubt would be “the meaning of the Kingdom of God on Earth.” I realize that comes across sounding a tad lofty and pretentious, but I assure you that I mean to be neither of those. Rather, I have simply taken to dwelling on what the Kingdom is practically intended to look like – perhaps because in this place, as never before, I am reminded of it daily. In his Gospel account, Luke records Jesus’ words, “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.” I had always understood this to mean that those in poverty are weak and powerless in this world, but God’s Kingdom inverses this – the last shall be first. I still believe this to be true; however, a fuller picture has been emerging.

A few weeks ago I was in an extremely rural area with a Ugandan colleague whom I regard as particularly sage. We were visiting a very poor woman who lived in a house made of mud, sticks, and straw. She ate only what she was able to grow herself, which was not much because she had just a tiny plot of land to farm. Further, this land was not even hers – it belonged to a neighbor, who had agreed that she could live there for a time. However, the neighbor had apparently changed her mind and was attempting to force this woman off of her land by casting curses upon her through witchcraft. The woman was frightened for herself and her children. She wanted to move, but had nowhere to go. Upon hearing her story, my colleague and I embarked upon a joint effort to help this woman buy her own plot of land. When we witnessed the immense excitement, joy, and thanksgiving on her face in response to our help, my colleague remarked, “They live lives of miracles.”

Perhaps inheriting the Kingdom of God has less to do with economic poverty itself than with the frame of mind and state of heart that economic poverty engenders. This woman lived fully expecting a miracle and was consequently attuned to God’s Kingdom on Earth because it was her only hope. I am thankful that God allowed me to be an instrument of His miracle that day. Even more so, however, I am grateful He reminded me, a comparatively rich mzungu, that I need His Kingdom just as fully as that woman does. In his Gospel account Matthew records Jesus’ words as “blessed are the poor in spirit.” Perhaps by adding the words “in spirit” Matthew sought to emphasize that it is less an economic than a spiritual poverty that is the key to inheriting the Kingdom – though for the economically rich maintaining spiritual poverty is just about as difficult as a camel entering through the eye of a needle.

I have barely scratched the surface in my understanding of Kingdom of God. However, I hope to continue to share my thoughts as I catch more glimpses of it in here in Uganda.

- sara