On Earth as It Is in Heaven

Earth. It’s a nice little planet. I call it home. And so do more than seven billion other people.

From a physical point of view, the earth is a round, rocky planet with a diameter that measures just under 8,000 miles and a circumference approaching 25,000 miles. The earth has one natural moon, and the earth-moon system orbits a star at an approximate distance of 93 million miles.

That star, the sun, is frequently described as “average.” Astronomers have identified bigger stars and smaller stars, older stars and younger stars. Many stars have companions, but our sun appears to be solitary. Its importance to life on earth cannot be described as “average.” Without the sun, life could not exist. The sun is essential.

When I think about the things that happen on earth, I can identify several different kinds of causes that share responsibility. Geological forces build mountains, open oceans, and cycle rocks. The results include earthquakes, volcanoes, gems, and hot springs. Hydrological forces move water. Evaporation leads to condensation, which creates rain drops that collect in streams, which help wear down mountains. Physical causes lead to physical effects within earth’s every nook and cranny.

Biology also plays a role in shaping the world. After volcanoes erupt, after forest fires, and after floods, pioneer species move in. These forerunners establish homes that create environments for others to follow. Even the air we breathe owes a debt to earth’s biology. You may already know that trees produce oxygen, but did you know that more atmospheric oxygen comes from phytoplankton than from trees? Phytoplankton, microscopic photosynthesizing organisms found drifting in the oceans, produce an estimated 50% to 85% of the oxygen available for breathing organisms, such as you and me.

Everything that lives on the earth occupies a niche among interconnected ecosystems. Because of life’s amazing diversity, earth’s deepest oceans host life. Its driest deserts host life. Organisms live on mountain tops, in caves, on open plains, and in the soil. Then, of course, there are those seven billion plus people. They certainly cause a variety of effects.

As far as anyone knows, at least during the year I’m typing this, no human lives on any other body in our solar system, or anyplace else in the Milky Way galaxy, or even in the entire universe. Spaceships have visited other places in the solar system, but human beings have set foot on only one extraterrestrial body: earth’s moon. All combined, throughout all of history (at least to date), a mere dozen people have walked on the moon. They didn’t stay long.

Speculation abounds regarding life in places other than the earth, what it may look like, and whether its existence would support or contradict biblical precepts. The Old Testament book of Isaiah quotes God: “I made the earth, and created man upon it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host” (Isaiah 45:12).

The verse affirms that God’s creative processes made the earth and formed humanity. It doesn’t specify how, and it doesn’t talk about other planets. The more familiar and somewhat more detailed accounts in the opening chapters of Genesis provide two additional proclamations that God made the earth and the heavens (Genesis 1:1 and 2:4), and they also omit any discussion of extraterrestrial happenings.

Biblical information concentrates on the people of earth, yet even in this limited focus, it is not comprehensive. Among all the varied groups that inhabit continents around the globe, the Bible presents the history of those who live in only one of earth’s geographic regions. The text completely ignores genealogies, dynasties, accomplishments, and challenges of people living in Australia, eastern Asia and the Japanese islands, North and South America, northern Europe, a host of islands scattered across the South Pacific, and the frozen lands of the Arctic. It cannot be that these people are unimportant to God. After all, Jesus’s instructions to his followers directed them to reach all nations (Matthew 28:19 and Luke 24:47). Apparently, diverse civilizations aren’t discussed in biblical documents because the essence of the Bible’s message can be communicated through a story that focuses on the history and experiences of one specific group of people (Genesis 18:17–18).

The Gospel of John concludes with these words: “But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). If Jesus did so many things during his brief lifetime on earth, that the entire planet could not contain all the books that could be written, how much larger would be the corpus of literature if it contained an account of all the things that God has done throughout eternity. No wonder the information we have doesn’t provide specific answers to every possible question about what happened elsewhere in the universe.

Yet irrespective of what else may be out there in the universe, or even out there in our own solar system, Jesus instructs us to pray for things on earth. If humanity’s reach ever extends to other physical places, our understanding of what “earth” means may also need to be extended. This parallels the manner by which people today understand that the whole world encompasses more than just the geography and inhabitants around the Mediterranean. For now, however, let’s set these speculations aside and assume that by “earth,” Jesus meant this physical, terrestrial ball upon which humanity dwells.

Apparently, there is a difference between what happens on earth and what happens in heaven, that mysterious spiritual dimension that is both within and above. In heaven, it seems that God’s will is done. Jesus offers words that leave a lot of details to the imagination when considering how this may be. Does God directly affect the doing of his will? Are there hosts of spiritual entities that never assert their own wills? And, if heaven is perfect, how can it exist within and above the fallible human mind?

I don’t understand.

But because the prayer asks that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, there must be a difference between when or how God’s will is made manifest. The nature of the difference seems ambiguous. The problem is with the word “as.”

For example, if I say, “Walk down the sidewalk as I do,” am I requesting that you accompany me (walk when I walk)? Or, do I want you to mimic my method of walking, irrespective of when you do it?

Another example: Do your math homework as you listen to your favorite music. Does this mean you should consider the attention, focus, and passion involved in listening to the music and apply those same attributes to the process of doing the math? Or, does the statement recommend listening to the music during the process of doing the homework?

So, if I request that God’s will be done “on earth as it is in heaven,” am I asking that God’s will be done on earth and in heaven simultaneously? Or am I asking that the manner by which God’s will is done in heaven be repeated on earth?

And, Jesus doesn’t give instructions about praying for what might be done elsewhere in the vast reaches of space. All the members of the heavenly host apparently operate under God’s command, but on earth, man was created. God’s Kingdom is apparently still spreading to earth, where it appears that his will is sometimes not done.

My prayer that his will be done on earth needs to be accompanied by my willingness to participate in causing it to be done.