Attaching to Our Father Through the Lord’s Prayer by Cyd and Geoff Holsclawනියැදිය

Our Father, Who Repairs Ruptures

I (Cyd) lost my father when I was just over a year old and spent my early years without a dad. By the time my mother remarried when I was almost six, I had created a fantasy of the perfect father. The real human who became my dad couldn’t possibly measure up to my ideal.

We all have ideas of the perfect father. Or at least the ways our own fathers could have been better. When Jesus teaches us to pray, he begins with the invitation to become connected to the only Father who is capable of loving perfectly.

When we choose to follow Jesus, we become adopted into a new family, children of a new Father. We become a family of sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, friends and former enemies. We are a community of misfits and orphans, success junkies and social dropouts, codependent martyrs and lonely skeptics, go-with-the-flow chameleons and over-the-top disruptors.

This Father—Father God—is our Father.

Who is this Father?

First, remember that this Father is the one who runs to greet you as you come to him (day 1).

Next, a good way to know our Father is through a contrast.

The first words of this prayer are “Our Father.”

And the last word is “evil”—or “the evil one.”

Evil is the force that ruptures. Not the everyday stuff like stubbing your toe or losing your keys. Rather, evil is the rupturing of our relational, moral, and spiritual lives. Evil is the force working against the goodness of our Father.

In contrast, our Father is the one who is repairing the ruptures caused by evil.

As we will find out in the next couple of days, our Father is concerned about our physical (“our daily bread”), relational (“our failings and forgiveness”), and spiritual ruptures (“our trials and temptations”).

Our Father is committed to doing something about them.

Your needs are not a burden to our Father.

Who you are is not a disappointment to our Father.

Your questions are not overwhelming to our Father.

Your doubts are not a frustration to our Father.

Your shame is not disgusting to our Father.

God longs to be a Father to you.

God delights in being a Father to you.

God is our Father who repairs ruptures.

The question is, “Do you want to be this Father’s child?”

AS YOU PRAY…

As you pray the Lord’s Prayer, try to feel and imagine what it would be like for God really to be a Father who is repairing the ruptures in your life. Pray into the reality that “Our Father” is on the good side of repairing ruptures, and “evil” and the “evil one” are on the bad side of making ruptures.