What is the Kingdom of God Like? An Overview of foreshadow 2021

By Josh Seligman

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What is the kingdom of God like?

This is one question Foreshadow sought to address in this past year's theme of pointing to the kingdom of God. (You can read more about the question in the Foreword here.)

Over the past year, our authors and contributors have responded to the question through poetry, prose, art, music and conversation. Usually, they have not answered with a direct definition ('The kingdom of God is X') but with a narrative or image, as Jesus often did in his parables ('The kingdom of God is like Y').

Sometimes, our contributors referenced the Beatitudes, the beginning of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in which he describes the characteristics of people who belong to God's kingdom. 

So, this review of the past year of Foreshadow features some of our work in relation to the Beatitudes. Of course, there are many more excellent works on Foreshadow; the pieces below have been selected for their strong resonance with this past year's theme and the Beatitudes. To view our other works, you can visit the Contents page here.

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Photo: Jon Seligman

Blessed are the poor in spirit, ​for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

• ​Off-Center (Poetry by Kay Harkins): 'You have a place, but it’s not the center, / it’s somewhere along a vein, a vine, a branch, / out on a limb, but not alone'.
• A Foretaste of the Kingdom (Non-fiction by Urzula Glienecke): '[T]he people we do not expect to "enter the kingdom of God" are those in whom God is present and acting'.​
• Love Song of the Anawim (Poetry by Susan Yanos): 'So take me, my bridegroom, my name. / Make of me a living lamp in your heart.'​

Photo: Carina Postolache

Blessed are those who mourn, ​for they will be comforted.

• A Mother's Loss and the Father's Love (Non-fiction by Kelcey Ellis): '[W]ith the example of a Father who demonstrated His love for us by placing His Son with adoptive parents so that we could be adopted into His family, what other response do we have?'
• No One Sees it Yet (Fiction by Michael Dean Clark): '“Maybe Jesse knew better than the rest of us. Maybe he was begging us to be honest…with ourselves and each other. Or maybe this was as senseless as it feels. Faith isn’t a salve designed to make us feel better. It’s the wound itself, healing when we believe the bleeding will never stop.”'
• If Anyone Asks (Poetry by Eileen Kinch): 'If anyone asks, the Lord is near. / When the deer pauses, mid-mouthful, / and glances at me, I feel it. / I see a knowing look in those eyes.'
• Another Walks Beside (Poetry by Rosemary Power): 'Give us lament, the ancient voice
  of courage speaking of the choice / we made to go astray...'
• Singing Tomorrow's Song (Interview with Jon Seligman): '...the chorus is not in the present tense. And you don't have the sense of victory in the way the music is constructed. You don't have the horns blowing, you don't have the archetypes of what would be a deliverance motif. It is very much an individual in the fight but the recognition that God has delivered in the past, and it's a hope...of deliverance based on the faithfulness of who God has been and who he believes God will be.'​

Photo: Amiel Osmaston

Blessed are the meek, ​for they will inherit the earth.

• ​The Strength of Gentleness (Forecast by various contributors): 'Dan’s life followed that arc in a very interesting way in that, as his body became more frail, as it became more susceptible to all kinds of things – even though some might look at that as a decrescendo, the twilight of his life, on his way out, getting quieter – the intentionality with which he lived his life became much more focused, and the things he accomplished – helping establish an orphanage in Rwanda and trying to make reparations, reconciliations with people, trying to be more soft-hearted than he’d been – to me it felt much more like a crescendo, like even as your body’s growing more and more weak, the force and faith and intentionality of your life is growing.'​
• ​Perspective (Music by Scott Stevens)

James Tissot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

• World Reborn (Music by Bruised Reeds [Evan Amo]): 'In a world reborn, weakness is strength / In a distant land, power's held by the slave / The truth is that the rich will one day be poor / When a world draws near upon salvation's shore'​
• Singing the Same Songs Together (Interview with Seth Little): '[W]e can have a room together of people that have all kinds of different backgrounds: homed and homeless, people that live uptown and downtown in the boroughs, people that have incredible, powerful roles in society and people that are really not sure about their next meal, literate and illiterate side-by-side. And that literally happens in our church, which is really beautiful, really challenging when you look up close, but really beautiful.'
• Meeting Christ over Tahini (Non-fiction by Josh Seligman): 'It was humbling to encounter these men who, every day, relied upon the care of others. Often while returning home from the night shelter, I would feel a mixture of things – a sense of unfairness, but also that my own humanity had somehow been deepened through my interactions with them.'​

Ford Madox Brown, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

• ​Planting Forgiveness (Poetry by Eileen Kinch): 'Forgiveness, a letting-go, / opening my hand / and dropping a seed / into the earth, perhaps every day.'
• Servant Leadership in Community (Non-fiction by Doreen Nyamwija): 'One of the practical things that attracted me to work here, after my time as a volunteer, was seeing people with normally big or important roles working alongside people with less important roles.'
  

Henry Ossawa Tanner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

• a voice in the darkness (Poetry by Emma McCoy): 'Listen! Here, in the dark, / someone calling your name. / Not the old prophet, sleeping / heavy, nor his sons who / sleep dreamless every night.'​

Edward Hicks, The Peaceable Kingdom

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

• ​Peacemaking through Song (Interview with September Penn): 'God is meeting us in these places...I am finding the beauty of what the Holy Spirit is doing on this platform...It feels like we're taking up new wineskins.'
• The Comfort that Comes to Those Who Mourn (Non-fiction by Tim Harvey): 'For now, my main task is to accept that Bill and I live in different echo chambers. A different set of voices shapes my world. I need to find the comfort that comes to those who mourn before I do anything else.'​

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Photo: Esther Dobson

• The Holy City (Non-fiction by Sam Seligman): 'He was spewing out his share of derision, culminating with the words, “Stay on the cross, Jesus, we don’t need you.” The audience roared its approval. I was incensed. “They think Christians walk around in white shoes, drinking milk," I thought. "I’ll give them something different.”'​
• Dawn Will Prevail (Music by Scott Stevens)
  

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​Next year, our theme is 'Called Forth: Vocation and Faith'. Submissions are open, so do share with us any work that contributes to the conversation. You can view submission guidelines here.

God-willing, I look forward to 'seeing' you early next year, sharing more work that points to the kingdom of God.

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Josh Seligman is the founding editor of Foreshadow and a co-host of its podcast, Forecast.