Into the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father in Heaven
Image: jessamyn @ Flickr
You could think of this line as the start of a letter, beginning with the name of the recipient and their address. The prayer is directed to God, our heavenly Father, who dwells in heaven. This may sound simple enough, but there are several important things to remember here.
The first thing I want to draw your attention to is the instantaneous contact we have with God. There are no rituals to perform to get God’s attention (remember Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel?), no lengthy process to make ourselves holy enough to be worthy of talking to God, no waiting for God to be available. The moment we begin praying, God is listening, right from the first word. God may be in heaven, but he’s also right here with us, present at all times regardless of whether we’re in church or at home, in a worshipful mood or shouting at other road-users. It is an honour and a privilege to have this sort of instant access to God, and we should be humble in our prayer that God should allow for this sort of thing, bearing in mind how often we screw up.
Now let’s look quickly at that first word, “Our”. It’s encouraging to know that we’re praying not just to my God, not just to your God, but to our God. The same God who listens to you listens to me. God isn’t some make-believe entity we make up, or something confined to our own imagination. Our experience of God is shared with all believers. When God moves amongst us we feel it together, and when we pray we know that God hears all of us. Your experience of God is just as valid and real as mine. We are united in faith. By praying to Our Father we acknowledge that God is universal, beyond language, beyond our individual experience, and capable of listening to all of us, all around the world, all at the same time.
Understanding how God is our father is also an important aspect of our faith, and Jesus goes into detail on this a number of times in his ministry. On the one hand, God is not our genetic father. On the other hand, he did create us. However, the point Jesus stresses is that God has adopted us as children. From birth we belonged to the world and went our own way, but by becoming Christians we accept God’s rule over us and he adopts us into his family. More importantly, Jesus says that we will all be sons of God; that’s not a sexist remark, but a clear distinction based on the traditions of the time. Sons inherited wealth from the father, daughters didn’t. When Jesus talks about God being our father, he refers to all of us, male or female, being inheritors of the promise of eternal life, the biggest and greatest gift we could ever receive. And it’s not an inheritance that is diminished in any way by being shared between lots of people, like money is – the promise of eternal life is made all the more wonderful by knowing that we will be among millions of other believers, hopefully our friends and family included!
That leaves us with the concept of God being in heaven. Despite many revelations of heaven, the details still elude us, which is perhaps part of the attraction. When John sees heaven (as recorded in Revelation) he describes all sorts of strange things – horns, angels, candlesticks, beasts, animals, crowns, a dragon, and much more. The imagery is rich with hidden meaning, and theologians have pored over it for centuries trying to figure out what it all means. I personally love reading Revelation, primarily because I don’t understand it. The very fact that it’s not clear shows just how wonderful it is – words simply can’t describe it! I find that very reassuring; if we got to heaven and found it was a little house on a hill, I would be just a little disappointed and start offering suggestions for improvements, which would rather spoil the whole experience. The fact that heaven is beyond our imagination is comforting – it means I am guaranteed to be awe-struck when I get there.
And the wonderful thing is that God will be there. The same God we pray to will be right there in heaven, right in front of us. Through prayer we recognise that we have been allowed a taster of what that will be like – we can talk to God freely right here, right now, because he is right here with us, right in front of us. Now, we see dimly as through a murky mirror or a sheet of privacy glass. But when we are in heaven we shall see God in all his glory.
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Matthew has long had a strong involvement with Christian websites. He was a keen contributor to the original Crossring site, and subsequently launched his own website, Focus On Faith. Focus On Faith was incorporated into Crossring in September 2009, and Matthew took on the role of lead writer for the site. Matthew works as a web designer, and lives in the West Country with his wife, Ellie.
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