Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.

I was thinking about the Lord’s Prayer the other day and I have the nagging feeling that I should not be praying it right now. There are parts of it that I don’t really mean when I say it. There are parts that I whole heartedly agree with. For my own benefit I need to really break down the Lord’s Prayer and see what I am saying. I don’t want to lie to God, so I am going to take a break from saying the prayer and take it line by line over the next week or so. I’ll post my musings here. Starting… now.


Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.

First off, how often do we actually want God to be holy? By saying God's name is holy; Jesus gives us the identity of God. Think back to Jacob and the Angel. Jacob asks what the name of the being who was wrestling with him. The dude didn't give him a name, but rather blessed him. Jacob knew that knowing someone's name gives you power over them. In our culture that isn't really the case. You don't really have power over someone one if you know their name, but there is a connection. Knowing that God is Holy, and he is our Father, we have a connection with the Holy Father. That is something I don't think about often, but it is a beautiful thing.

That being said, do I act as though I am the child of a Holy Father? For that matter, how would an adopted child of a Holy Father act? I’m sure they wouldn’t be perfect, but they would try. That reminds me so much of Stoyan and the family from church who adopted him. Stoyan is a little 8 year old boy from Bulgaria that the Schuster family rescued this summer. One of my friends told me that the matriarch of the Schuster clan had said that Stoyan would have gone to the big kid orphanage soon. The Schusters really truly rescued that little angel from an awful fate. I think the little guy knows it too. Whenever he would see his new mommy or daddy he would run to them with a huge smile on his face.

Just like the Schusters rescued Stoyan, God rescued us from a horrible fate. I know that, but I don’t run to God with a huge smile on my face. Often times I run from God. That is not an appropriate response to the realization of the love that our Holy Father has for us. Hopefully God can work in my heart and show it the love that it needs to have that reaction. Someday I will be like Stoyan. Until then I can only pray for God’s help.