Jesus speaks often of the Kingdom of God, but never explains exactly where it is. Instead, he simply tells his listeners where to look! Thelma and Paul show us how we help God’s kingdom expand.

In this situation, Thelma feels left out from a misunderstanding due to a family money issue. However, Thelma has decided to invite Ralph, her brother, to lunch to try again for old times’ sake to resolve their awkward and hurtful situation.

Ralph accepts the invitation. During the luncheon, after sharing hurts and tears, they ended their long and upsetting separation. All they had to do was reconcile their past grievances. As Jesus would proclaim, “God’s Kingdom now lives in this restaurant.”

And we can do the exact same thing any minute, hour, or day when we decide, “to bury the hatchet,” and start loving again. In another example, Jesus points Paul to visit with Regis, a neighbor, who lives alone. Paul knows that Regis, who lives down the block, lives alone. Paul realizes he hasn’t seen his neighbor sitting in his yard for the past few days and decides to ring his doorbell and say hello. Regis answers the door and lights up with a wide grin when he sees it is Paul.

Regis explains that his twin brother died, and he needed time to grieve. But now he would like to share his loss with someone. Paul said he would be honored to stay with Regis for as long as liked. He stayed for a while, and Regis admitted he was soon feeling much better. Paul’s kindness in visiting Regis, and Regis's healing from his grief through this neighborly visit, was again as Jesus would say, “A Kingdom building moment happening.”

Scripture states that the goodness emanating from the new Kingdom of God are like flashes of lightning. appearing here and there. Paul and Thelma are those flashes of lightning. They took the time to mend something broken or used a casual knock on a neighbor’s door to bring the Kingdom near. And around them lightning flashed because they took the time to do what needed to be done.

We can be Thelma and Paul, for we have the time to do good deeds in our lifetime. All we must do is ask God the Father for his grace, to reach into our hearts, and share our love where needed. With each good deed accomplished, darkness and fear disappear, leaving hope flashing like lightning in its wake. And God’s Kingdom grows larger and larger.