What if the whole creation, the process behind it being what it is, was a person, wouldn’t that make life more interesting?! An unfolding adventure?!
In a moment of sleeping in one of my children’s beds after swapping, I was trying to get off to sleep so started whisper praying (thinking, thanking and praising) which turned into this ‘meditation’ and no sleep suffice to say!
I began going through the Lord’s prayer from the top but didn’t get far as I began to examine (as it does puzzle me) what the first bit means.
I am one of His children and He is my Father (actually I didn’t look at that this time as I took it as a given but as I write I realised something that He is the initiator – a Father’s prerogative? I might come back to that). It was the thought “…hallowed be your name…”. Sounds old fashioned, but then it struck me it’s about identity! Someone’s name tells us about their identity. I/we need to respect, honour, make holy i.e. hallow the Father’s name.
I’ve recently read that ‘The Hebrew word (for holy) is qadosh. It has an intriguing double meaning –‘belonging to ’ and ‘separate from’. The best English word to translate qadosh is ‘unique’. ‘ (Noel Moules: Fingerprints Of Fire Footprints of Peace). I’d come to understand something similar that holiness is about being, quite simply – different! Nothing religious about that, not aloof, or pompous, unattainable or unreachable but just different – unique!
As I thought about “…your name…” I thought of YHWH – I am who I am or I will be what I will be. One of the characteristics of God I know a little of (!) is as creator. Suddenly I thought this works with the creator too, this past, present and future God. Put another way, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit created in the past and are creating in the present and will continue creating in the future.
Now to my what if? Evolution, whatever your stance is on it, seems to be the most popular workable theory or driver if you like for what makes creation happen. My thought is the driver behind evolution is a person! The person of The Three, The God-head, three-in-one. In Genesis it says “…Let us make…” (which to some scholars means the trinity). God was there at the beginning! In Ephesians (1:23) and Colossians (1:16,17) it talks about Jesus filling creation and holding it all together, I believe making it complete and whole. He also calls us to be involved in this process of creation as humankind.
This poses another question. If I’m saying that YHWH is I am who I am, the same yesterday today and forever, this could to my mind mean he’s still creating? Of course I like that idea! Maybe not creating new sets of plants or animals but causing the possibilities of adaptation to a changing world. Giving the ability to move on – creation is dynamic as can be observed e.g. the sky this last month!
Sometimes I like to engage with God in this way using the Lord’s Prayer in remembering who he is (as what’s in a name?!). It makes me look beyond myself and helps me get perspective back. Sometimes I get no further than the first lines as you can see!
Not only is Jesus creator, He is also the one who is revealed as my senior brother (Heb 2:11). That is somewhat more personal to me as I don’t have a brother. The whole thing looks like a family affair whichever way I look at it. This leads nicely into my final thoughts.
Something that’s relatively fresh for me is from Ephesians 3:14, 15 “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name“. There it is again, the naming business! Our identity comes from the Father and creator. He knows us and is not under any illusions about us. (Take a look at The Mirror Bible .or get a hard copy, it really draws this theme out). Our identity is truly bound up in our relationship to the Father.