Here, There, Everywhere, by Rev. Tara Steele

The phrase “here, there, everywhere” recalls images of my grandchildren scampering around the garden hunting for Easter eggs. There’s excitement, fun, competition between them, and a moment’s triumph when a treat is found.

Perhaps that was what the teacher Jesus observed as how the Jews searched for heaven in his day. When asked where heaven was, he told the Pharisees the kingdom of God was not here or there, rather it was within.

I’ve been reflecting on heaven and our focus on its being within us. I settle into my inner sanctuary, listen to the still small voice, sit in prayer and communion. Then I “return” to my everyday life renewed and refreshed, getting back to work. At times, heaven is my refuge from the messiness of daily life. I wonder if that’s my more acceptable version of spiritual bypass?

When asked, “where do you experience the Divine?” students often mention nature, sometimes music, children, being with beloveds. Doing the dishes, driving to work, checking emails – those activities rarely show up on the lists. Perhaps it’s because the Divine needs a setting appropriate to Its spectacularness? Or we only notice God when we are in awe and wonder? Or, as when we go to prayer, we choose not to bother Spirit, or notice Spirit, in the little things?

Here's where I’m landing. Heaven is clearly experienced within. We have carved a path to the sacred, with practices, candles, stillness, mantras. And there is much good in that!

What I’m suggesting is that’s heaven is not limited to “within.” It is here, there, everywhere. Though Holmes calls it “spirituality”, for me he offers a beautiful description of heaven in the textbook:

Spirituality may be defined as an atmosphere of good, a realization of God…It springs from within, coming from that never-failing fountain of life, which quenches every thirst, whose Source is in Eternity; the well-spring of self-existence. It is a revelation of the self to the self, putting one back on the track of his own self-dependence on Spirit, his own at-one-ment with Reality. 

 [Ernest Holmes, Science of Mind, 446:2]

The invitation is to bask in heaven, then trail those clouds of glory back into the Allness of our lives. In Science of Mind, we believe, with Eric Butterworth, “there is no spot where God is not.” Let’s extend that understanding of God’s omnipresence to bring heaven, the state of Being that Ernest Holmes describes, into every moment of our lives. Here, there, everywhere!






Rev. Tara has been at home at the Center for Spiritual Living Santa Rosa since driving by on her way to her daughter’s home. There’s been a lot of serendipity in her life though sometimes, it has taken decades to follow up on Spirit’s leading. Education Minister at the Santa Rosa center, Tara’s passion is to welcome students into exploring the teachings of Science of Mind, in learning circles of connection, curiosity, growth, and inclusion.

Wearing her “Oma” hat, now a grandma living in a granny unit, she reads dragon fantasies with her 9-year-old grandson and encourages her 4-year- old granddaughter’s recording videos, all of which are cute, some of which are rather good. Life is amazing, challenging, delightful, and always worth savoring.

That was a revolutionary idea 2000 years ago. It’s at the heart of Science of Mind’s understanding of heaven. From the Science of Mind’s glossary, heaven “is a real state of Being,” “the result of that atmosphere of conviction which our thought awakens in us.”