Which Art In Heaven

¹“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” (Matthew 6:9). Every description of Heaven makes it sound a million times better than the absolute best day we could ever experience on this Earth. If we were on some all expenses paid vacation at a five star resort with a whole army of staff to see to our every need, enjoying the very best food and the best entertainment with our favorite people in the world and then someone calls and interrupts our vacation and starts telling us how much they are suffering and asking us to leave behind our wonderful resort and come help them figure out their problem, how do you think most of us would react? I for one would be strongly tempted to tell them to figure out their own problems and not bother me while I'm on vacation. But luckily, our Heavenly Father is much better than that. God is in Heaven. He could be having the time of His life, feeling nothing but peace and joy and universal harmony and just sitting around listening to choirs of angels sing His praises. Instead, while He's on His perfect vacation He takes the time to truly listen when we call and even leave behind all of the luxury and ease and everything nice and come help us figure out our problems. How incredible is that! He could be in Heaven but He spends all of His time with us where it's dark and sticky and full of bad smells and loud noises and everyone's always fighting and shouting at each other and being cruel and petty on purpose and just generally being the total opposite of heaven. Do we ever think about how our prayers are pulling God away from all of the wonderful things He could be enjoying in Heaven? I'm not saying that we should just try to do everything ourselves and not bother God. He loves us and He loves to help us work through our issues and He probably doesn't have the same kind of put upon grudging attitude that we might feel if we were getting torn away from Heaven. But what I am saying is that we could have a little more gratitude and reverence for God when we pray. He could be doing so many amazing things instead of helping us with our tiny problems, but He gives up all of the luxuries of Heaven to listen carefully to every one of our prayers. I'm so grateful for the mercy and loving kindness of our Heavenly Father.