Advent – on earth and in heaven

Over the last three weeks I have focused on the process waiting and longing to see Our Father’s kingdom come and his will be done. This is a prayer that ties heaven and earth together:

Your Kingdom come
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Matt 6:10

In a few days’ time we will celebrate that heaven and earth met in a manger in Bethlehem more than 2000 year ago. God’s kingdom came, his will was made clear on earth as it was in heaven.

The incarnation – the fact that the ‘word became flesh’ – ‘God became man’ (1), was the first real meeting-point between heaven and earth. So when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, why did he include a prayer that had already been fulfilled the day he himself was born?

Because the fulfilment of that prayer needs to be repeated again and again until Christ returns at the end of time. The only way it can happen is through heaven meeting earth in the incarnation of the Word becoming flesh, however with a ‘face’ of our present day.

This miracle of incarnation happens every time I, like any born again believer, see that I live in Christ and He lives in me. Then God’s kingdom comes, salvation for all men in Jesus is proclaimed so that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Every time I study the Lord’s prayer, I am reminded of its perfection. It is saturated with matters of importance. The part ‘Let your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!’ is even a ful surrender to his will and salvation. When we pray in this way, there is Advent on earth and in heaven because more of God’s Kingdom will come.

‘Manna’ for today:

Let every heart prepare Him room! (2)

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(1) John 1:14

(2) Line from “Joy to the world!"