A Last Thought on the Our Father

In his great little book on the Our Father The Lord and His Prayer, N.T. Wright makes the point that the Our Father is a way Jesus expresses, or "wears," his relationship with God the Father. It's a prayer that brings to life that intimate relationship.

And given that, he says, saying the Our Father we're sort of like a little brother/sister trying on an older sibling's clothes. It doesn't quite fit -- the sleeves are way too long, I can barely walk without tripping, we sin like crazy, we don't regularly have the same intimacy with God that Jesus does. But much like those clothes, "wear" that prayer awhile, and eventually you grow into it.

I'll let Wright speak for himself:

Our task is to grow up into the Our Father, to dare to impersonate our older brother, seeking daily bread and daily forgiveness as we do so: to wear his clohtes, to walk in his shoes, to feast at his table, to weep with him in the garden, to share his suffering, and to know his victory.

Kind of a neat way to think about what we're doing. We pray the Our Father, and in our prayer as in our lives we are allowing ourselves to become more and more like our "older brother," the people we're meant to be.