The Lord’s Prayer
Every summer of my childhood I can remember my parents packing the family up in the old Plymouth Valiant (at that time 2 adults and 4 kids) and driving to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to visit relatives. I was especially fond of staying with my paternal grandparents, grandma and grandpa DeHoog. They always tried to make our visit special. Grandpa saved all of his matchboxes for us to build amazing structures. He showed us his favorite penny trick and blew his infamous pipe smoke rings. To this day, I still associate the smell of a pipe tobacco with my grandfather.
Grandma spent more time with me because I was the only girl. She played pick-up sticks with me, Go Fish, and made me hand-sewn doll clothes. She gave us orange soda in pretty etched glasses and made vanilla pudding with fresh strawberries on top. In the morning, we always had a boiled egg in one of those cute egg cups with a slice of toast and cheddar cheese.
There was one tradition in particular that I really loved! Each night everyone sat down together for dinner and my grandfather would bless the meal and then we would all say the Lord’s prayer. When dinner was over, we could not leave the table until he read a passage of scripture.
The Lord’s prayer became a part of our family life as well. Every evening my father would say the Lord’s Prayer before our meal and each child said a short blessing for the food. The Lord’s prayer seemed to bind us together as a family of faith.
This Sunday we are going to dig deep into the scripture from which this prayer originates. We will explore why the disciples wanted Jesus to teach them to pray this way. And why this prayer is one of the longest held traditions of the Christian faith.
See you Sunday!
Jeri-Lynne
