Our Father, which art in heaven?

Where is heaven?

Why is it that we always think of heaven as somewhere “up” there? It’s most often depicted in books and movies as a very cloudy place, so it is obviously in the sky, although clearly still within our own atmosphere. [tic]

We also know from all the popular Bible stories that Jesus went up to heaven, right before the disciples’ eyes. Ephesians 4:9 says that he ascended to heaven after first descending to hell, which is located in the “lower parts” of the earth. So clearly, heaven is “up” and hell is “down”.

Journey to the Center of the Earth, anyone?

I have given up trying to develop complex explanations for the many textual inaccuracies found in the Bible. This is one of those examples. Do you really believe that hell is located in the center of the earth? Do you believe that we will spend all of eternity floating on a cloud, 2-5 miles up, somewhere between the troposphere and stratosphere? (But certainly not the mesosphere, thermosphere, ionosphere or exosphere!)

And is that where God is located? Or is God closer than we think?

Maybe it is better to understand heaven as simply, “the spirit realm.” Or as I like to call it, “the realm that is more real than this one.”

It could be that the key to understanding Matthew 6:9-13 is actually found one verse earlier, in verse 8…

“Your Father knows what your needs are before you ask him.”

God knows our needs because he dwells in the spirit realm, in the realm that is more real than this one. And from this ‘vantage point’, he is able to see more clearly what we need and who we are.

I wonder how our prayer life would change if instead of praying like this…

“God, up there, far away and distant from me, looking down on me (hopefully) from your perch way up high in the sky, would you please come down here for a moment and help me in this, my real world?”

…we began to pray like this…

“God, who is nearer to me than my own skin, who knows me better than I know myself, and sees my situation more clearly than I, help me to see what you see, so that I may more fully experience your reality right here, right now.”

My 4-year old daughter told me once, “God isn’t in heaven, Daddy. He’s in my heart.” Teach me that one again, Kate.