The pessimistic conviction that heaven is always elsewhere or comes later in one's experience and that earth is a "vale of tears" or, at most, of only ephemeral value to mankind would prevent the full enjoyment of the moment and the opportunities at hand. A proper reading of the Gospels would contradict these theories.
Matthew records that Christ Jesus instructed the disciples to tell the people (10:7), "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." According to the Gospels of both Matthew and Mark, the Master's first preaching was on the same subject. And he told an inquiring scribe (Mark 12:34), "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." Heaven is not far away in either time or place.
Jesus did not claim that he had a way by which good could be brought from some other locality to earth, but he showed that his thought and his way of life were examples of how the good that is at hand can be enjoyed. We can be not far from the solution to our problems, not far from the harmony or bliss that constitutes the kingdom of heaven on earth, and still be very far from recognizing the fact.
