“Together,” it is just one little word, yet somehow it came to mean so much. You are three and so maybe the word was big for you. Big or Little, we both know what “together” means.

We were praying. You were saying the Lord’s Prayer. You wanted to say the prayer alone. (It is lovely to watch your confidence grow.) You made it most of the way through, you paused, looked up at me with those mild yet gleeful eyes and said, “together, let’s pray together.” You wanted me to add my voice to yours in this prayer.

Maybe you lost your way and you didn’t know the words. You needed me to step in on this prayer and remind you of the words we pray behind the Lord in His model prayer. You needed me to be there for you as a mentor, a father, a pastor and a discipler to show you the way. There are several moments where I have done this in my own life and called out for the help of others and recognized that I needed someone to show me the next steps to take. I’ve also been blessed to be there for many who have needed someone to shephard them along the way.

Maybe though you just saw me alone and you didn’t want me to be alone and so in your sweet childlike simplicity you reached out and said that one small/ big word, “together.” And by saying it, you were saying that I wasn’t alone and you weren’t alone, but we were together.

Maybe you just didn’t want to say the next part alone. It was full of big words that somehow roll easily off the tongue but plague us in their difficulty to put into practice. You needed to know that it is okay to ask God to forgive you, even as your daddy does. It’s okay pray to forgive, even as your daddy does. It’s ok to pray against temptation and for deliverance, because even your daddy needs to pray this way… you needed to know that I too am a sinner and struggle to ask God for these things sometimes, but that I do.

Maybe you just know that I love Jesus too! You thought I shouldn’t be left out when we pray. You know he is my king and that I pray to see his kingdom come and you didn’t want the opportunity to pass me by. So you said “together” to encoourage me to do what I already do and what is right.

Maybe you said it because I use that word with you all the time. You know all the analogies I use and always sum it up with, “we belong together.” And you just wanted to have another “together” moment with me with God in prayer.

Maybe it was all of the above, maybe it was none of it or perhaps something in between. But you taught me so much about how to pray just now when you said together. For such a little word it means a whole lot. There were days before the isolation that we see so much of that I took that word and all it meant for granted, but today when you uttered it in all it’s simplicity I understood it like never before.

Now to make a broader application of these thoughts. I look forward to the next full gathering of our church where we are together. Together as brothers and sisters in Christ. Together as the called out ones. Together to minister to one anothers needs. Together to encourage. Together to disciple. Together to strengthen one another. Together to bless one another in the Lord’s name. Together to bless and worship the Lord.

I am grateful for the words, “our” and “us” in the Lord’s prayer that reminds me that when we pray, we never really pray alone, but we pray together. Perhaps you are on your side of the globe and I’m on mine. But we are both praying for the kingdome to come and his will to be

“In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as [it is] in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

-Matthew 6:9-13