“My word! What a mess you’re making,” said Nana to us children when we were busy cutting paper and strewing it around . I used to wonder what “My word” really meant, until I read Isaiah 55:11: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven , and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

One day the disciples watched Jesus as he prayed and asked him to teach them how to pray as he did. Jesus promptly gave them his words, what we know as the Lord’s Prayer, beginning with the words, “Our Father”.

In that prayer Jesus embraced the disciples as family, and admitted them into his own relationship with God, It was as if a prince’s companions had asked the prince to show them how to address the King, his Father. He gives them the very words his Father wants to hear, and with the words, the shape of the relationship they would have with the King. As the words went out from the mouth of Jesus they began to bear all the fruit that Isaiah promised, as Christianity spread throughout the world, and they continue to bear fruit as we bow our heads together and speak His words again.

The Lord’s prayer leads us into the presence of God our Father, and places a way in our spirits to come close to God. It’s a generous gift to us from Jesus, and Jesus gave it spontaneously in response to the disciples’ request. It’s as if he was just waiting to be asked to give them his “Words”.

I believe that Jesus knew, even before his resurrection, that God was adopting the disciples and that his relationship as the Son of God would expand and he would have many brothers and sisters to call God “Father”. Jesus knew, too, that the Holy Spirit of God would be with the disciples as He was with the Father and the Sun, making their prayers a lasting bond that would never return “empty”.

More than two thousand years later the words of the Lord’s prayer rest in the hearts of believers as a doorway to God’s Spirit, and a way of life for the adopted children of God. Nana, my grandmother, was one of those. She frequently reminded us of the Word of God, and spent part of every day reading her Bible. In her life, Jesus’ words bore much fruit, helping to make His Word, My word.

Love in Him,

Prue