This weekend we have been babysitting our two year old granddaughter, Lila. ( Probably it’s more accurate to say Suzy has been babysitting Lila.) So this morning, when the priest introduced the Lord’s Prayer by saying, “ Now as our savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say…” I paid a little more attention. I have a new understanding from Lila of the concept of being bold. After all we are children talking to our parent when we recite this prayer. Buechner points out that by asking that God’s will be done on Earth we are saying, do with us as you wish, not as we wish. We are saying let it all hang out — God, without really knowing the consequences of what we ask. That is bold.
After the weekend with Lila, I recognized the second part as well — the give us, the forgive us, the don’t test part, and the deliver us. Buechner tells us that to make such requests are bold as well. He says it acknowledges that we cannot do anything without God, that we have nothing and are nothing without God. Well, maybe so, maybe it is being bold, but we are told to approach God like a little child, and we were taught to begin by saying, “Our Father….” So if our requests are anything like Lila’s, we know they will be heard with love and answered with the love. A parent’s love for his/her child is a mere reflection of God’s love for his/her children.
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