Who Art in Heaven

“Who art in Heaven,” take another look; it is deeper than it first appears. It is the second phrase of The Lord’s Prayer found in both Matthew 6:9-13, and Luke 11: 1-4. Still, the line lends itself to deeper truths than just ‘God is in heaven.’ What does it mean that God is in heaven? If God is in heaven, how can he be on earth? Is God contradicting Godself? Heaven is not like earth because God created heaven separate from the universe. God is transcendent making God always present. God may seem to contradict Godself, but God is truth and can be both words that create an antonym. God is outside of God's creation making God outside of creation's boundaries.

Heaven, where is it, what is it, and how do I get there? Genesis 1:1 reads “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth,” so heaven is separate from earth. The bible mentions numerous times in history when The Lord, or angels, choose to make themselves known to those on earth through a voice, vision, dream, or another phenomenon (Genesis 22:11, 15; Exodus 20:22; Deuteronomy 4:36; Matthew 3:16; Luke 2:15). Heaven is usually thought of as above earth, and as the place where God and the place where Christians’ will live an eternal life (The Miller, 248). John 14:6 reads “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the light. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Since this is true, and God lives in heaven, the way to heaven is to believe the Jesus is the Son of God and to follow his teachings.

Since God created the heavens and the earth and God is omnipotent; God is in heaven and earth. God is transcendent by living in heaven yet watching over earth and providing for it. Although we may not understand how this works, it is okay because we recognize that many of God’s works are beyond our comprehension. “Let him be content to say ‘What is this?’ (Exodus 16:15) So too let him rejoice and delight in finding you who are beyond discovery rather than fail to find you by supposing you to be discoverable.” (Saint Augustine, 8). God is far beyond any human comprehension; God is not a thing because God created all things. God is unlimited therefore God is transcendent.

God is transcendent not only in relationship to place, but also in action. Clashing words that are antonyms seem to fit well together when God is described. Take for instance Saint Augustine’s words “deeply hidden, yet intimately present…immutable yet changing all things.” (Saint Augustine 4). God never leaves us and is always present with us, yet the closer we are to God, the less we feel we know about God, and the more we desire to be in God’s presence (Hebrews 13:5). God changes the things God made, still God remains constant and unchanging. Hebrews 13:6 reads that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever,” while creation may change the designer does not.

God is beyond the limits of God’s creation. Heaven and earth are separate creations; therefore, God is sovereign of both places. God is transcendent and capable of doing all that God desires without changing Godself. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus meant for his disciples to learn to know God at a deeper level than first glance allows. Jesus desired his disciples to know more than God’s location when he said “who art in heaven,” so to Jesus meant more than surface level glance allows one to see in each line of The Lord’s prayer.


Bibliography
The HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version: With the Apocryphal/Deutercanonical Books. Ed. Wayne A. Meeks. Rev. ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.
Hauerwas, Stanley andWilliam H. Willlimon. Lord, Teach us: The Lord’s Prayer and the Christian Life. Nashville: Abingdon Press 1996.
Lash, Nicholas. Believing Three Ways in One God: A Reading of the Apostles’ Creed. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993.
Miller, Madeleine S., and J. L. Miller. The New Harper's Bible Dictionary. Eighth ed. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1973. 248-49.
Saint Augustine. Confessions. Trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.





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Writen for Biblical World View: Theology: Professor Alex Sider