The Kingdom of Heaven is mostly assumed to be referring to an afterlife destination...however, that's not what's meant when it's used in the Gospels. The best way I've found to define the Kingdom of Heaven is it is a representation of the value system of God, and when Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand he's saying God's Value System is breaking into the value systems that dominate our world and offering us something radically different. Today we get our first look at what God's value system is through the Beatitudes.