Wednesday 8 September 2010

Praying and thumbsucking

So someone asked me to do an illuminated Lord's Prayer for them...

I prayed and thought about it for a long time..

Then I started work.






I'd said the Lord's Prayer nearly everyday between the ages of 4 and 11, parrot-style, along with my classmates, not hearing the words I spoke and not believing the truth contained within. Consequently I have to work very hard at really seeing and hearing what Jesus is praying in these verses.

But it's the first two words that always knock me over. 'Our Father'. This is what I can never get over. That the God of the universe, the Maker of heaven and earth wants me to call Him Father. I will never recover from that.

But not only that! As my niece Grace would say 'There is more!' Jesus tells me I must become like a little child. Jesus said this is how you should pray, 'Our Father...' It's no coincidence that people who're especially close to God (think Heidi Baker) have a childlikeness about them. It's Heidi who says, 'it took me a long time to get this simple', I think.

So I chose Linus to illustrate our simple, trusting, childlike praying. And when I wavered God showed me that his name, Linus, sounds a bit like 'lion in us', which is a clue I think, to the truth that, in a Chrisian, greatness comes from humility.