Earl and Our Father

Jesus says: "Pray then in this way. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done." Matthew 6:9-10

Eighteen years ago I would go every day to the nursing home to visit a man who was a member of Alpha Church. He was frail with Parkinson's. Even though this disease was overcoming his body, Earl's mind was clear and his faith in Jesus was strong. When we prayed the Lord's Prayer together we'd always join hands, mine shaking within his. As we progressed through the prayer the shaking in his hands subsided until we'd reach the 'Amen' and the shaking would return.

Jesus says where two or more are gathered in His Name He is there-- Earl and I felt this. Jesus says, "I AM the way, the truth, and the life." Earl and I thanked Jesus for this. Earl said to me, "We don't know anything except that God has allowed us to know it." Exactly.

When we pray for God's will to be done in us we are affirming the Kingdom of God, or another word is Realm, and our understanding that God is in control of it all fills us. Such was Earl's understanding when he gave his life to Christ as a boy, as he was at Pearl Harbor when attacked, the day he married Ruth, the day he prayed for direction in his life and turned down a job for Walt Disney because he just knew God was leading him another direction, and the day our hands shook until Christ came to take him to heaven.