My early morning routine includes taking Rudy our 10-year-old Schnauzer for a walk around the block. While he does his business, I try to pray through the Lord’s Prayer.
I pray each phrase of the prayer, adding my own words as I go, pausing every once in a while to pick up after Rudy. (God made the dog, so I’m sure he doesn’t mind the interruption.)
Sometimes I make it through the whole prayer, sometimes we are back at the house before I get to the daily bread.
Our Father
The prayer starts with: Our Father. On a good day, I dwell on this a bit as I walk the neighbourhood. Faith in Jesus the only begotten son means I am now one of many beloved sons and daughters. God is my Father.
I let this truth percolate in my heart like the coffee that is waiting for me at home.
Imagine the most tender and loving human father possible, and then multiply it by, oh let’s say a million billion.
That is God’s fatherly heart toward you in Christ!
Amazing.
And it’s true even when you are sleepy-eyed and stumbling around the block picking up after your dog.
Our Father in heaven
The Heidelberg Catechism LD 46 says that the words in heaven teach us not to think of God’s heavenly majesty in an earthly manner, but to expect from his almighty power all things we need for body and soul. Read that again. The contrast is between fathers on earth and the Father in heaven.
There is a big difference.
Our Father in heaven doesn’t make parenting mistakes.
Our fathers on earth, even if they are good dads like my dad, don’t always meet our expectations. No surprises there, they are human after all. Fathers on earth don’t always give us what we need, and when they try, they sometimes still mess up. Just ask my own kids.
But the Father in heaven is an entirely different story. Our Father in heaven doesn’t make parenting mistakes. He never misjudges, he never tries and then fails, he is never too busy, he never lacks care and concern.
When you pray to him you can be confident that he will generously give you exactly what he knows you need.
God is a Father who Doesn’t fail like Human dads do
So on a good day, as my dog sniffs and does his business, I pray Our Father in heaven and meditate on the fact that God is a Father who doesn’t fail like human dads do.
He is a heavenly Father who comes through for his children. I might pray words like: “O Lord help me not to project on you the faults of earthly fathers; give me instead great expectations of what you will do in my life!”
Now that starts to wake you up!
It is early but now I’m eager to see how God will answer the rest of the prayer. Now I’m opening my sleepy eyes and waiting and watching for God to do great things. I’m not talking to any ole earthly Father, I’m praying to our Father in heaven!
I’m quite sure my dog Rudy doesn’t understand any of this. He has been with us 10 years and sometimes I think he is barely a Christian dog.
Then again, I’m not always much better.
On bad days I can make a mess of things before my post-prayer walk-coffee has had a chance to go cold.
Praise God that in Jesus Christ God is my Father in heaven! I trust him, and I expect great things from him. I know he will pick up after me.
