Psalm 144:5-8

What aren’t we seeing that exists around us? There are times God has given mankind glimpses of heaven through visions and dreams, yet for the most part, people live unaware of its present reality. The phrase “open the heavens,” or “rend the heavens” as other versions say, seems to imply that a spiritual veil exists between heaven and earth preventing us from seeing it unless God open our eyes—just as he did with Elisha’s servant (2 Kings 6:17).

I think of when God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and stationed mighty cherubim to its east of it, and a flaming sword to prevent access to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24).

And then there is the “cloud of witnesses” surrounding us—those, I believe, who have died in the Lord before us. It seems they can see us, but we cannot see them.

I don’t have to understand it all to know, as Paul says, that “to be absent in the body is to be present with the Lord.”

God is very close. When the Scriptures say that He is a “very present help in times of trouble,” we can trust that He is closer than a personal body guard. Actually, He is the best Protector one can have.

As this Psalm indicates, we may not be able to see God coming, yet we can see where He has been, for the world changes when He steps in. Mountains shake, hail and brimstone rain down, seas part, armies are thrown into confusion, donkeys talk—yet storms are calmed, people are rescued by angels, protected in lions’ dens, fiery furnaces, preserved boiling vats of oil, or miraculously sprung from jail as Peter was. Heaven and its resources are very close.

The question is not whether heaven is real, but rather what our relationship to it is. As believers, we are called citizens of heaven and therefore have access to God and His benefits through Christ.

Don’t you want to be a part of His Kingdom?


Question: How does understanding myself as a “citizen of heaven” influence the way I live, think, and respond to challenges on earth?