Our Father in Heaven…
Jesus told us to pray to Our Father in Heaven, not our earthly father. This important distinction needs to be addressed because many have had horrible-no-good-very-bad-fathers; and they are the only sort of father we can imagine. But even those who have had good fathers still have an inadequate view of Our Father in Heaven.
For many people, a father is a loving man who wisely guides them from birth to adulthood. But for others, a father is only partially engaged in their lives, oftentimes absent from important moments. Some fathers live in a different house than the one in which we grew up, and some fathers have had affairs. Some fathers have been in prison and some fathers have abused us. Some fathers have died when we were children, and some of us have never known our fathers. Our understanding of a father is difficult to change and something we carry with us all of our lives.
So it should be no surprise when we are told to call God our “Father” we have a difficult time not projecting our definition of “father” onto him. We see Our Father in Heaven through the lens of our earthly father.
It is for this reason that Jesus added the important words “in heaven.”
Our experiences are inadequate, we need to be told or shown what a Heavenly Father is like. Fortunately, the Bible is full of the words and works of Our Father in Heaven.
The Bible tells us that Our Father in Heaven existed before anything else; it tells us that he is eternal. It tells us that Our Father in Heaven created all of the universe for us and for our pleasure. It also tells us that when we goofed things up in the garden and fractured our relationship with him, Our Father in Heaven continually pursued us. Our Father in Heaven provided a way for us to make things right with him by means of sacrifices, but we rebelled against that. Our Father in Heaven revealed his perfect law to us and even sent prophets and miracle workers to prove that he wanted to redeem us from the consequences of living contrary to his ways; but of course, we rebelled against that too.
You would think after so many times of rejecting him, Our Father in Heaven would just throw his hands up and say, “I give up. Your life is your own. Live it however you want.” But he didn’t. Our Father in Heaven sent his son Jesus, God incarnate, to earth to show us the sort of person that Our Father in Heaven is. In fact, Jesus even said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the father.” The Father, Our Father in Heaven, who had created us and set in motion a plan to redeem us sent to us an exact representation of his being so that we might know how loving he really is. But once again, we rebelled against Our Father in Heaven and killed his son.
But God, Our Father in Heaven, used the sacrifice of his son—the son we killed—as a payment for our debts.
You see, Our Father in Heaven is not at all like any of the fathers we have ever known, no matter how good you think your father is or was. God, Our Father in Heaven, has shown us throughout all of time, and eternity, how loving and caring he is. And even when we reject him he has provided a way so that things could become right between us again.
Leviticus 26 is, in my estimation, one of the greatest chapters in the entire Bible. In Leviticus 26 Our Father in Heaven tells us that if we follow his ways he will bless us. And then he tells us five times that if we don’t follow his ways, he will punish us with punishments growing ever larger the more we continue to reject him. But then, Our Father in Heaven says, “But if they will confess their sins…I will not reject them.” No matter how grievous our sins might be or how often we reject him, Our Father in Heaven is always willing to accept us back.
Jesus tells a story about two sons, one who did what his father wanted and one who ran away to a far-off country so he could indulge in the pleasures of the world. This second son, when he ran out of money, decided to return home. He didn’t expect to be treated as a son anymore; he expected to be treated with disrespect and disdain. But when the father saw his wayward son returning, Jesus tells us, “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
And so we pray, “Our Father in Heaven…”
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