Who art in heaven

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come……Revelation 1:5 esv

Last week we were considering how we can relate to God as Father and how The Lord’s prayer reflects our relationship with God through accepting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.

Today we ‘re considering the next step; it is a prayer for those who are adopted into God’s family, but they are also living somewhere else.  In other words, it’s a prayer for those in God’s family but who haven’t arrived home yet.

In Genesis 2 we see a glimpse of heaven on earth through the lens of the Garden of Eden.  God’s desire is to spend eternity in communion with his creation.  However, sin on earth has brought darkness into God’s creation. God gave mankind the role and responsibility of subduing animals and to multiply God’s kingdom.  When they not only allowed the serpent into the holy garden but listened to it’s lies about God and his character, they could no longer fulfil the promise of multiplying God’s kingdom.

Heaven is so different to this place called earth. Heaven is where the holiness of God is fully expressed, it is the place where mortals cannot tread but it is also the place that all humanity were created to live.

This seems contradictory to us usually because the sin in us demands it knows better than the God who created us. Why would God create this impossible scenario?  Why promise a home that doesn’t welcome the brokenness of humanity?

What appears to be a contradiction is the very place that the supernatural power of God meets with the sinful weakness of mankind.

The time where heaven and earth came to meet when the Son of man came as a baby.

We cannot and were never meant to be able to walk this life without God’s intervention, without God’s provision, without God’s sustaining power.

The walk towards heaven is the place where we are made ready for heaven, it is the journey that tests our hearts to respond to the provision of a loving Father or demand the right to do what pleases me.

The promise of heaven, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, is littered throughout the bible however it is in Revelation that we see in poetic language a glimpse of the reality of heaven.  It is beyond our understanding to grasp something so alien to the place we live that Jesus reveals his glory through the love language of poetry.

Read Revelation 21 and 22 and think about how God uses the things we know to describe the things we could never imagine.

For me it is the jewels.  I can imagine the wealth and the purity that they represent, grander than any human palace every built.  Then compare this to Revelation chapter 1 and the glory of the one who came to save us, to transform us from the darkness of our sin into the light of his glory.

Then you will begin to understand that we are not only pointed to a place to live but more importantly the person we are promised to……the bridegroom.

Most weddings we go to everyone wants to see the bride but the bridegroom as he catches a glimpse of the one he is waiting for can not focus on anything other than his bride. For us as we look forward to heaven it is the bridegroom that will fill our vision, it is the bridegroom that will put everything into perspective, it is the glory of the bridegroom that will satisfy the longing of our hearts.

And how can we live with him forever the most holy of holy places……because he not only saves us from our sins but transforms us into his likeness, into his glory.

So next time we pray Our Father who art in heaven let us be thankful for the incredible work our Triune God is preparing us for……a glorious life with him forever.

And how can we trust this…..because he is sharing the beauty of his love with us now, in the midst of the darkness of this world we are surrounded day by day by his glorious intervention, his glorious provision and his glorious sustaining power……and his glorious call to come follow me!