When the clouds are thundering and the oceans roaring, they call to Thee: “Our Lord!”
When the meteors fall, and fire springs up from the earth, they speak to Thee: “Our Creator!”
When the flowers are opening their buds in the spring, and the swallows are picking up pieces of dry hay with which to make their nests for their young, they sing to Thee: “Our Master!”
And when I life my eyes up to Thy throne I am whispering to Thee: “Our Father!”
There was a time, a long and fearful time, when man too spake to Thee and called Thee: Lord, or Creator, or Master! Yea, when man felt himself to be only a thing among things. But now by merit of Thy First-born and Best Son, we learned Thy right name. Therefore, I too, with Christ, dare to call Thee: “Father!”
If I address Thee as “Lord,” I bow in fear before Thee as a slave amongst an army of slaves. If I call Thee “Creator,” I separate myself from Thee, as night is apart from day, or as a leaf from its tree.
If I look to Thee and say “Master,” I am as a stone among stones, and as a camel among camels.
But if I open my mouth and whisper “Father,” love takes the place of fear, earth seems lifted nearer to Heaven, and I walk with Thee, as with my companions in the garden of this world, and share Thy glory, and sorrows, and strength.
Our Father! Thou art the Father of us all, and I would lessen both Thee and me if I call Thee: My Father!
Our Father! Thou dost not care so much about me, a single individual, as about the whole world. Thy Kingdom is Thy aim, and not a single man. Selfishness cries to Thee: My Father! But Love cries: Our Father!
In the name of all men, my brothers, I pray: Our Father!
In the name of things which surround me and with which Thou hast woven me, I pray to Thee, Our Father!
I pray to Thee, Father of the universe, for one thing only I pray to Thee: let soon dawn the great day when all men, the living and the dead, in harmony with the Angels and stars, and the animals and things, call to Thee by Thy true name: Our Father!
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