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04 – Which Heaven?
Where is heaven? What is heaven? Is it a place, or another dimension of life? Is it far away, or within our reach? And if God is in heaven, shouldn’t we seek to know something about this heaven?
In the Bible, the word “heaven” is often used to refer to the earthly atmosphere. Some passages speak of clouds, rain, snow, dew, and frost as coming from heaven. See what Isaiah 55:10 (NIV) says: “…as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth…” You can also find this sense of heaven in Jeremiah 10:12–13 and Psalm 147:8.
The word “heaven” is also used to describe outer space, where the sun, moon, and galaxies spread across the vast expanse of the sky; see Deuteronomy 4:19 and Joel 2:10.
So when we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father in heaven,” we may ask: In which heaven?
The truth is, God’s love is revealed both in the rain that waters the seed and in the warmth of the sun, without which life could not exist. When we gaze at a starry night or the beauty of a full moon, our souls overflow with divine inspiration, and God’s presence touches us deeply. How wonderful to know that “Our Father in heaven” holds the entire world in His hands, sustaining and governing it with grace and kindness.
Yet there is another meaning of the word “heaven”—one that we find in the New Testament. And this is what we will reflect on in the next meditation.
Shall we?
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About this Plan
The well-known Lord's Prayer, taught by Jesus to his disciples, can be divided, for study purposes, into two parts. The first addresses God's demands: his dwelling, his person, his kingdom, and his will. The second half addresses humanity's demands: their needs for bread, forgiveness, and deliverance. Let us, in this context, address the first part of the prayer.
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