Hallowed be Thy name.

"Hallowed be Thy name."
Adorable One.

This has unexpectedly become my favorite verse (if that's even really possible) of the Lord's Prayer. Maybe it's because I really had to dig into it, think hard about what it really means. And I've come to see it as a very transforming verse - one which really prepares us for the rest of the prayer, one that prepares us for healing.

And that's because it demands you to stop. It demands you to stop and consider what God really is. It shows you why "What is God?" is the most important question in the world.

In the first verse, you acknowledge your true relationship to God, and glimpse something true about what God is (our Father-Mother) and where He lives (Heaven - and you get to learn more about Heaven in the third verse).

But "Hallowed be Thy name" makes you stop. It makes you think: what is it to "hallow" God's name? what does it mean to "adore" the One God?

Hallow has these meanings: to make holy, to consecrate, to treat or keep as sacred. It's interesting too that the word "holy" shares its Anglo-Saxon origins with our words for health, and wholeness, and carries the significance of salvation.

And Mrs. Eddy did not mean "cutesy" when she understood this verse to spiritually mean "Adorable One." In her day adore meant: to love in the highest degree; to regard with the utmost esteem and affection.

In fact think about it: if you adore someone, don't you hang on their every word? don't you follow their every movement? don't you just LOVE being around them? wouldn't you do anything they ask? isn't it completely effortless and joyous and fun to be near them - and don't you want to be as near them as you can possibly be? Isn't that how you should be relating to God? Isn't this what it is like to really bow before Him, honor Him, to accept your sacred holy healthy whole (unbroken) relationship with your Father-Mother, the all-harmonious adorable One?

But wait. Why does Jesus say "Hallowed be Thy name?" Why not just say "Hallow God" and be done with it?

Because our Lord's Prayer moves you beyond just a kneejerk blind "acceptance" of God as God. His prayer moves you to think about something deeper: the name of God. What does it mean to hallow and adore His name? What is a "name" anyway?

The dictionary says a name is that "by which a person is known or designated." But it also refers to that which defines a person's character and actions.

Is Jesus then telling you to thoughtfully, prayerfully hallow, honor, respect, maybe even understand / appreciate / love, God's nature? His character? His qualities?

Yes. Because as you begin to think about God's nature, His character, His qualities, you begin to grasp what God is. That He is Love, therefore His nature is loving not vengeful. That He is Spirit, therefore He is spiritual not material. That He is Truth, therefore He includes all reality. That "God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all." I John 1:5

So, if God's nature is completely loving, spiritual, real, and luminous - what does that say about you as His image and likeness?

By honoring God's true name and nature, you begin to learn who you really are as God's creation. You begin to change the way you think about yourself. If you're honest about it, you also begin to change how you act, how you live, how you love. Can you really hallow, honor, respect, appreciate, love your Father and His Name and Nature, and then go off and think, live, and act in some opposite way? But if you do begin to knowingly live as best you can according to your understanding of how God really made you, then you are living authentically.

It's interesting to think about all the places in the Bible where people did exactly this. And as they woke up to their true spiritual nature as God's own image and likeness, and lived accordingly, things changed - sometimes radically. In fact, in the most dramatic cases, their names changed because of their spiritual awakening: Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel, Saul became Paul. These are all dramatic examples of how people are transformed when they truly hallow - honor, yield to, reflect - God's true Name and Nature.

So as you pray this verse, think about how adoring God's Name moves you into your natural wholeness - holiness! Into a bigger understanding of yourself as His image and likeness. Into living authentically. That as you hallow, honor, respect, appreciate, love, adore what you are learning about God and His true nature as revealed by Jesus, you begin to understand who you really are as His reflection. You start dropping all the negative things you may have thought about yourself, all the hateful things that may have been said about you, all the societal misconceptions that may have labeled you. And instead you wake up to your true nature as God's likeness. Your true nature is actually just like God's: loving, spiritual, healthy, whole - holy - because that's the way God made you! And nothing can ever change that.

Wake up to this truth that Jesus gives us in his Prayer. Let His likeness shine as you, His Life flow through you, His Love move in you. Let His Love soften you, strengthen you, show you that your innocence is unimpaired. Let His Love calm and purify your heart. Let your words and actions temper as your thoughts move off yourself, and out toward your Father-Mother God.

Let the Lord's Prayer help you to understand God's true nature, help you to love God for who He really is: Love itself. Let the Lord's Prayer teach you to love who you really are as God's own likeness. Let the Lord's Prayer help you to love your neighbor as yourself - love the true God-like nature of those around you. Let the Lord's Prayer help you bow humbly to (as Mrs. Eddy says) "to receive more of His reappearing." This is acknowledging the Name of God. This is adoring the Adorable One. This is hallowing His Holy Name.