A New Window

When the disciples of Jesus asked Him for some help in praying and they heard what we know as the Lord's Prayer for the first time, they could not have imagined that it would become the most prayed prayer in all of Christian history.  While it has become too traditional for some of the more contemporary services that only want to be as current as the most recent song on the most trendy Christian radio station, more churches than not have that moment of inviting its people to pray the Lord's Prayer together during Sunday morning worship.

 

As the people begin with those first words, "Our Father" it might be a good thing some Sunday if the preacher would holler out, "Stop!" and then when everyone got over the shock of being woke up from the prayer, additional instructions might be offered.  "Now, go find a stranger, someone you do not know, and talk with them for the next five minutes about what it means to have the same Father.  And at the same time ask yourself what it means to have this stranger as your brother or sister."

Most likely this is not going to happen next Sunday, but imagine for a moment it did.  In fact, this simple suggestion can become a spiritual journey for the next five minutes.  Each one of us can lay aside what is in front of us and in our mind put some stranger before us.  For some it might be a pointless activity created by a preacher with nothing else to do, but for others it might become a way of opening a new window to open when praying a very old prayer.  It could be a new way of viewing heaven as well as the soul.