"Our Father which art in Heaven"

In God's providence, in my daily reading on the very first day that I began to take notice in the Scriptures of God as father, I read through Luke 11.2 in which Luke recounts Christ teaching the disciples to pray. He tells them to begin this way: "Our Father, which art in heaven" (KJV).

Christ is revealing something very important here. God is a lot of things. He is creator-God; he is Lord of the universe; He is sovereign; he is the redeemer of men; he is master; he is a lot of things, but when we come to him, we are to come to him as our father. Why?

I think to emphasize the personal connection between God and his [individual or collective] children. A father is personally concerned for his children and takes special interest in them. He–as Christ himself points out later in this chapter–knows how to give good gifts to his children. What kind of father would hear a plea for help from his child and not respond with every possible fiber of his being? If an earthly father responds that way, how much more God the father?

When we pray to God the father it is a powerful reminder to us of the personal connection and concern of our God.