Our Father

¹“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” (Matthew 6:9). God is our Father. Our. Father. He is my Father and your Father. He is Father to the Christians and the Muslims and the Buddhists and the Agnostics and the Atheists. He is Father to righteous and the wicked, the wise and the foolish, the beautiful and the ugly. It is difficult to imagine what it must be like to attend to the wants and needs of over eight billion people, especially when some of their prayers contradict each other. In a sporting event, ten thousand prayers might be made to God that one team wins, and ten thousand prayers might be made that the same team loses. God is Father to all of those sports fans and loves each of them perfectly and has an answer for every one of those contradictory prayers. Of course, many of our prayers are for much higher stakes than a favorable outcome for our favorite sports team. But no matter what we are praying for, we must remember that God is our Father. He will figure out a way to do what's best for us and what's best for all of His other children all at the same time. If two of His children are both praying their hearts out for the same position that is their dream job, and one of them gets it, then God simply has something even better prepared for the other child. Let us not be jealous or envious of one another. Let's remember that even though we have a deep and personal connection with our Father that is uniquely ours, we also have to share our Father with billions of others. He knows how to help all of us in the exact right way but that means we have to trust Him. Sometimes we might need to wait because the answer to our prayers will bless not only our lives but the lives of others as well. I hope that we will remember that God is the Father of everyone, and not just us.