NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Coming out of a restaurant one frosty autumn day, I pulled my jacket collar tightly up under my chin and walked briskly toward my car -- only to find it wasn't there. Three phone calls and $119 later, I retrieved my car from the impound lot. "Didn't you see the sign?" the cashier chided me as he handed me the car keys. "It says No Parking in Alley."

I had missed the sign but legally I was without excuse. There was no way to escape the consequences -- a gentle reminder of a greater truth: Of all the things we miss in life, the greatest tragedy is missing the kingdom of heaven. And yet people throughout the ages have missed the opportunity to enjoy the everlasting benefits of God's glorious reign.

You might think it's easy to miss something the New Testament describes as a "mystery" (KJV) or a "secret" (HCSB). The truth, however, is that missing the kingdom of heaven requires a deliberate act of the will.

Consider three reasons some people will miss the kingdom.

1. They don't see it. Jesus told Nicodemus that unless a person is born again, he or she cannot see the kingdom of heaven, let alone enter it (John 3:3-5). It takes the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit in the human heart to make one a child of the kingdom.

Lest we become fatalistic and blame God for not saving everyone, Jesus tells His disciples that the lost can't see because they refuse to see. Quoting Isaiah, the Savior says, "For this people's heart has grown callous; their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn back -- and I would cure them" (Matthew 13:15). While the immediate context of this verse is a reference to unbelieving Jews in Jesus' day, the truth of hardened hearts is universal.

The Apostle Paul adds that "the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4). But for those who hear the Gospel and receive it by faith, the Father "has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves" (Colossians 1:13).

Simply put, people don't see the kingdom because they choose not to see it.