When my son was young, there were two places he was scared of.

One was the underground carpark and the other was the lift at the shopping mall.

In the carpark, you have SUVs and MPVs driving and turning, with the sound of their wheels screeching. For a little boy of his height, these vehicles are like tanks. He’d be very scared.

What does a child do when he is very afraid? He would look up and say: “Daddy! Carry! Carry, Daddy! Quick! Quick! Daddy, carry!”

The other place he was very afraid of was the shopping mall lift. Usually, when the lift door opens, we parents are very protective and we’d say, “Very crowded! Quick, quick, go in!” And then we push the child into the corner.

When he turns around as all the adults come in, what is his view? He’d see the back side, front side, side-side of adults.

And then he would grab me and say, “Daddy, carry!”

Would Daddy say, “Scaredy cat! Why you so scared?”?

No! Daddy comes down to his level (on earth) and lifts him up (towards the heavens).

My son would grab hold of me. Suddenly, peace and calm come to him. When he turns around and looks down, everybody is shorter than him, he’s not scared anymore. There’s no more fear. 

Where does he draw that strength, courage and boldness from?

From Daddy, and from that height.

Seeing things from up high

Similarly, when we are scared, and don’t know what to do, we can pray The Lord’s Prayer – the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray (Matthew 6:9-13).

It starts with “Our Father in heaven” – which, to me, is basically “Daddy, carry!”

Jason, with his wife Donna and their children. Here he is carrying his son Samuel, who is now 24.

I realise now that it is meant to remind us that earth and heaven are very different. “On earth” – your office, your industry, your sphere – can be a very scary place.

Our perspectives – like a young child’s – are very earthly. Whereas, God looks down from heaven.

But just like how my young son would calm down when I carried him and he could see things from “heaven”, when you go back to office, go back to the world, you just need to say “Daddy, carry!” when you are scared.

So “Our Father in heaven” is an antidote to our fear, when we allow God to come down and lift us up, to carry us – just as toddlers reach up to their parents to be carried. 

Why “our Father”?

In The Lord’s Prayer, why did Jesus say “Our Father in heaven” and not “Our King in heaven” when afterwards it says “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done” ?

If I say, “This is your teacher”, who are you? You are a student. If it’s “This is your pastor”, you are congregation members. If it’s “This is a doctor”, you are the patient. “This is your Member of Parliament”, you are constituents.

So if it’s “This is your king”, then we are subjects, soldiers and slaves; then we are orphans – we have no father.

That is why Jesus was very clear that He wanted us to know who we are.

He said: “Pray like this: ‘Our Father in Heaven’.”

He wanted us to know that God is our Father. We are sons and daughters of God.

When you invite Jesus into your life, the spirit you receive does not make you fearful slaves. “Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15).

Neither are you an orphan who thinks: “I’m not good enough”.

For six years, when I was a Senior Director at the Ministry of Social and Family Development, I oversaw the foster care service in Singapore, and the residential homes that looked after hundreds of children and youth who didn’t know or couldn’t be with their parents. Some of them end up misbehaving, since they think: “Nobody wants me, nobody loves me”. Some end up striving, because they think: “They don’t want me, I need to prove to them I can make it. I don’t need them”.

But yet, if our Father has a Kingdom, He is King. If He is King, who are you? You are a prince! You are a princess!

“My father (pictured with my daughter) encountered Jesus in the hospital, and was healed of the pain to the point where even the doctor and my mum were surprised,” said Jason.

And if you do not know what to do, pray: “Our Father in heaven, may Your kingdom come, may Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

“Our Father, You show me what You are seeing.”

For example, if my little son were standing here, he cannot see very far because the adults will be blocking him. But if I lift him up, he will be able to see what I see.

After he sees what I see, he knows my heart. And when I put him back down, he will be a different person because he saw what his father saw. He feels what the father feels, and he will do what the Father has assigned him to do.

I don’t know what you are going through – it could have something to do with a relationship, your work, your school, your family – and you may feel that you don’t know where to turn. The only way is to grab the Father, look up and say, “Daddy, I need You to carry me.”

Some of us are carrying burdens. God wants to help us carry our burdens.

Some of us need courage, some need peace. Allow the Lord to carry you. 

For some of us, God wants to carry us so that we can soar higher, we can see further, and become closer to Him.

I often tell my two children this: “Daddy will not be here with you and for you forever. So get to know God deeply and stay close to Him like the way I have done. I may not be with you, but Daddy God will always be with you. He will look after you when I am no longer able to.”

Extracted and adapted with permission from a sermon, “Our Father in Heaven”: Unlocking the Secrets of The Lord’s Prayer (around the 20:14 mark) that Jason Wong gave at Church of Singapore Balestier in September.

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