What and where is heaven?
Matthew 6:9
So, what might it mean to say that Our Father God is “in heaven?” Just what or where IS heaven? Is it up in the sky, somewhere like a black hole in outer space? Is heaven even a “place” at all, a singular location or, is heaven a reference to a spiritual realm where God’s presence is? And how can the God who is our Father in heaven, hear the prayers we say here on earth? Perhaps even more importantly, can this God who is in heaven take action from that heavenly realm, action that in some way makes a difference in the earthly realm we all live in?
“…Who art in heaven”
- God’s perspective
- God’s proximity
- God’s unalloyed purity
- God’s sovereign power
“The God whom we have been taught by Jesus to address as ‘Our Father’ is the one who rules the whole cosmos, who speaks in earthquake, wind and fire. Any less of a god wouldn’t do us much good.”
William H. Willimon & Stanley Hauerwas, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord’s Prayer & the Christian Life
“In the biblical God, transcendence and immanence are not opposites but complementary aspects of the divine nature and character. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, “God is the beyond in the midst of our lives.”
Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture
“Because we call God the Father who is ‘in heaven,’ we are bold to pray for such absurdly extravagant gifts as bread for the world, peace among the nations, healed marriages, cured cancer, rain. We are bold to pray for such gifts because we pray to the Father in heaven, the one who rules.”
William H. Willimon & Stanley Hauerwas, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord’s Prayer & the Christian Life
