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Those are words from one of the first prayers that I learned as a 2 year old at the Catholic Montessori school. At the time, I had no idea what the words of the famous Lord’s Prayer meant.

When asked by his disciples how they should pray, Jesus responded with these words:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

I pray the Our Father as it is written when I feel separate from God. It helps me to clear the seeming space between us. It reminds me that God is always with me, ever near.

Recently, I have been paying attention to the line, “on earth as it is in heaven.” As I grow in the understanding that I am an expression of God, that line makes the most sense to me. It’s as if I am asking to dust off the stuff that I have between my highest good and what is manifest in my life.

Last year, as I set my goals for this year, I concentrated on that phrase until one day I realized that my goals were already manifest in “heaven”. The process of achieving them this year would be much more than going through the motions to check off tasks. It’s about deepening my awareness of Spirit and letting it shine through me freely.

Heaven, in this context, is not a physical destination in some time in the future. Heaven is the unseen realm of All there is. It is the space in which God abides. The place of radiant health, unconditional love, infinite supply, joy, harmony, and all good. It is like the steam form of H2O. Conversely, earth is the manifest realm. The place that we see, smell, taste, hear, and feel. We may experience challenges and triumphs. It is like the ice form of H2O.

Between the two is our lens. A space of our own creation. The prayer, “On earth as it is in heaven,” helps to thin the layer between, or clear up the lens so that we may experience all that there is in the invisible.

In Spirit,
Nneka

Do you have any prayers that you learned as a child, but have come to understand as an adult?