Other Worlds

“He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” John 1:10-13

There are many worlds—the ones created by God and the ones created by the imagination of man. God has often accommodated us in our worlds the way a parent would accommodate a young child who was playing in a make-believe world. He even talked baby talk to us at times. You know, He really wanted us to grow up. He spent a lot of time and energy maturing us, getting humanity ready for the coming of the Teacher who would give us the truth about God and ourselves. He spent a lot of time telling us the most amazing and imaginative “bedtime stories” that point toward the Teacher. Now they are called “myths” by many. He used the nation of Israel to reveal a moral code to the world and her prophets predict His coming. He used the Greeks to mature our thinking and He used the Romans to connect the world with a universal road system and language. When things were just right, He placed The One among us and thus began the greatest story ever told.

You see, now and then the real world of God breaks into our world through different people and events. The events we call miracles. The people we call prophets. They usually come into our world to tell us that our world is a mess and that we need to put things in order. We usually respond in less than a cordial way. We often angrily reject the prophets and ignore the events.  Afterward, to justify ourselves, we made some saints or heroes make us feel good about how we and our ancestors have behaved. We then enshrine them in a mausoleum that we call religion, and there they rest as mummies of the past, safely hidden from the real world of us mortals.

When the Teacher came into this world He told us that God’s patience was wearing thin and everyone needed to grow up and open his eyes to the new world which God was about to create.   It would be completed in and through the coming of The One.  He warned people and told them to “wake up for the Kingdom of God is near”.  However, the Teacher also pointed out that He would be our last wake-up call.  No one else would be coming to wake us up. The One was delivering the final warning.

It was predicted that The One would speak and talk to us in a unique way.  He would speak in parables and hard sayings.  It was said that only the elect, those with an undivided heart who were prepared for His coming, would be able to understand His message. They had been watching God’s activity in the world and knew that everything was just right for the coming of The One. When they heard the Teacher proclaim that the Kingdom of God was at hand they understood immediately, that God was about to create a new world order. When the Teacher spoke, He always spoke of the kingdom (the new order) and was continuously inviting people to join Him in building the new Kingdom of God.  He is still inviting people.  Those who have ears to hear and eyes to see will continue to enter and experience the new world of God or what the Teacher called the Kingdom of God.

Before leaving this world The One told those who were of the elect that He was leaving this world to prepare an eternal home for them, another world that was much different than this one. He explained He had to do it that way because the old order was so broken, it could not be fixed. He told His friends to wait patiently for His return. He instructed the elect ones that their mission until He came back, was to tell others about Him and His coming return. They were to shed His light into the darkness that filled this world. He even gave them a list of peculiar happenings to watch out for while they were waiting and working. He also cautioned them to watch out for the trappings of religion they would find all around them. They were not to spend so much of their time collecting the things of this world since this pursuit would distract them from their mission of spreading the good news of the new world that was coming.

Have you heard the voice of The One who said, “Come follow me”?

I