The Lord’s prayer begins with Jesus teaching his disciples to address “Our Father” who is “in heaven.” Which begs the question… where is heaven? By the middle of the prayer Jesus then shifts his focus from heaven as a set apart space, to now heaven on earth, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Initially, Jesus instructs his disciples to pray to heaven, and by the end of the prayer they are pleading for heaven to come down to earth.
Again, begging the question, where is heaven? Along with, how will it come to us?
Heaven is a convoluted word, with many unhelpful associations in our cultural context. When we look at the biblical story, heaven has less to do with a physical place and more to do with space. We see the heavens and the earth united in the creation story, and then reunited once again in the restoration of all things. The breach between heaven and earth occurs due to human rebellion, and Jesus comes to heal the fracture of God’s space and human space. The good news is that through his inauguration of the kingdom at hand, heaven and earth are being reunited. God is recreating his world to be a place where every square inch is filled with his loving presence.
So… what does this have to do with prayer?
When we pray to “Our Father in heaven,” as Jesus modeled, we are experiencing a foretaste of what has yet to take place, the availability of God’s intimate and near presence. This is what Jesus has made accessible to his followers by instructing them to pray. Thus, prayer is the intersection between heaven and earth now, the in between, the now not yet, a portal to what will be forever. As Jesus’ disciples, we pray not just to recite his words, but because it gives us eyes to see and experience reality for what it truly is and will be.
Some of Jesus’ most famously recited words teach us that prayer is the direction in which the entire biblical story is headed in the union of heaven and earth. Ultimately through him, prayer is how we enter, remain, and anticipate life with God now as it will one day always be “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Some Quotes to Reflect on Over the Next Week:
“Of all the Spiritual Disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father.” - Richard Foster
“Our final prayers will all be praise- heaven reverberating with our amens and hallelujahs.” - Eugene Peterson
“Prayer is the act of seeing reality from God’s point of view” - Philip Yancey
[Prayer is] “a way of existing, of living each moment in the awareness that one’s whole life is permeated with the presence of God.” - Tim Mackie
“True prayer is not so much something we say, nor is it something we do: It is something we become.” - Pete Greig
Check out this video for more on Heaven and Earth!
Post was written by Ben Ide