It’s often been observed that it’s impossible to be in two places at the same time. That’s why it’s so important for suspects in a crime to be able to provide an alibi. But what if you could be in two places at once? I more or less managed it for a few years when we lived on the boundary line between two villages and I could stand in the lane with a foot in each village, but I don’t think that really counts.
Well the Bible has a different take on all this an insists that for those who follow Jesus Christ it is entirely possible to live in two places at the same time. Against the idea that we live on earth while we wait to go to heaven when we die, the Apostle Paul asserts that “our citizenship is [already] in heaven1”, and we took up this new citizenship the moment we surrendered our lives to Jesus.
Living in heaven, or the Kingdom of God, means living our lives in the presence of God rather than moving to a new territory, and because of Jesus we can start living in this new kingdom even while we remain on earth.
1Phillippians 3:20
