WHEN God spoke to the children of Israel through the listening Moses in Horeb, He described the promised land thus: "The land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: a land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year." In such a beautiful, symbolical word picture we may catch a vision of the kingdom of heaven, the dwelling place of spiritual man.
When Christian Science awakens us to the spiritual, it is with surprise and joy that we begin to see and understand the truth in the statement of Jesus, "The kingdom of God is at hand." Before this illumination, the kingdom of God was believed to be a future, far-off region or experience, possible to us only through death. It was almost a dim unreality to us; and suddenly to become aware of its reality and of its presence "at hand," and to start to glimpse its beauties and its possibilities in touching our own everyday experience, fills us with anticipation and joy.
In Luke's Gospel Jesus tells us something more about this kingdom of God. He says that it "cometh not with observation." Surely, then, it is evident that it is not a gold-paved kingdom discernible by the physical eyes, but rather is it to be known through spiritual sense; and as we use spiritual sense or understanding, we become aware of the kingdom of heaven "at hand." That this kingdom is confined to no locality Jesus emphasizes when he says, "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there!" Right where we are is the kingdom of God. Since it is present, or "at hand," we do not have to go anywhere at all in order to find it. Wherever God is, there is the kingdom of heaven; and God is omnipresent—everywhere.
