by Rev. Rune Marie Nielsen
“Our Father, you who are in the skies…” Most Christians would not open the Lord’s Prayer this way, and for good reason. In English, “skies” and “heaven” are distinct words, so there is little ambiguity about which concept is being invoked. We do not need to decide for ourselves which of the two concepts is being presented. Many languages do, however, have one word for both “sky” and “heaven.” Even so, the context of the Lord’s Prayer still makes it relatively easy to discern which meaning is intended. This concept is fascinating to me as I think about how observing the sky has shaped my spirituality.
In Danish, himmel means both “sky” and “heaven,” with the plural form himlene. While the English version of Lord’s Prayer starts with “Our Father who is in Heaven,” the Danish version is Fadervor, du som er i Himlene, which means “Our Father, you who are in the heavens.” Before studying Greek in seminary, I used to think that the plural himlene was used at the opening of the Danish Lord’s Prayer due to the ancient Nordic belief in multiple heavens (Valhalla was just one of at least four realms of the dead in Norse mythology). However, I discovered that the Danish translator chose to keep the plural form of heaven to be consistent with the original Greek.
In Matthew 6:9, where the first line of the Lord’s Prayer comes from, οὐρανοῖς is the Greek word for “heaven” or “sky.” It is plural in the original scripture, and sometimes translated as plural throughout the New Testament. Many English translations opted to use the singular “heaven” in Matthew 6:9 while the Danish translation chose the plural himlene.
In fact, the same pattern is seen in biblical Hebrew. The plural word שָׁמַיִם (shamayim), commonly translated as “heaven,” can also refer to the sky. Starting at the very first verse of the entire Bible in Genesis 1:1, “heavens” or the “skies” are important enough for us to be aware of at the beginning of everything: “When God began to create the heavens and the earth…” (NRSVUE).
“Earth” is actually the most common subject connected to heaven in the Old Testament. Most English translations of the Bible contain “heaven/skies” and “earth” together in the same verse or topic between 185 and 190 times. By contrast, heaven is rarely referred to within the same subject as a non-sacred afterlife. Shamayim appears a total of 421 times in the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), whereas the term Sheol, referring to a morally-ambiguous realm of the dead, is used just 65 times in the Old Testament. Sheol is mentioned alongside shamayim in only three instances.
Furthermore, shamayim is written in a special suffix form called dual plural, shown with the use of –ayim. This state indicates that the plural specifically contains two of a noun. The dual plural may have been utilized with the intent of describing heaven one half of a pair with the earth. These words can be seen as two contrasting concepts or as two parts of one whole. Earth completes heaven and heaven completes earth. Following this idea, I believe Heaven’s purpose is not just for the dead. It also exists for people on earth to find meaning in.
All three terms that mean “hell” in biblical Greek show up only 13-14 times in the New Testament, depending on the specific English translation. This shows us that heaven is defined not by its opposite, but by its complement in biblical Hebrew (the earth), and by its standalone identity in biblical Greek. Linguistically speaking, heaven does not require hell (or sheol) in order to exist. Heaven’s most important relationship isn’t to the version of the afterlife we don’t want to be in. Heaven’s most important relationship is to the earth we are living on right now.
If the sky represents heaven and the land represents earth, and both are two halves of one whole, we miss quite a lot if we don’t look at the sky. I learned this lesson when my grandmother told me about my grandfather’s fascination with clouds. My grandparents traveled extensively around the world. One day, my grandmother asked to see the album of photos my grandfather had taken on their journeys together. She was shocked to see that almost all of the photos were of clouds. My grandmother couldn’t understand why he’d take photos of boring old clouds when they’d seen so many interesting people, cities, and landscapes. My grandfather told her “Isn’t it amazing to know that we’ve been under the sky in so many places?” He delighted in the fact that they’d been under the clouds covering a large portion of the earth.
Most clouds have a rather short lifespan, usually a brief 10-15 minutes depending on humidity and other weather factors. Their particles move around in an ever-fluctuating mixture, transforming the cloud’s shape and trajectory until atmospheric conditions cause them to precipitate or scatter. However, the tiniest, most basic parts that form a cloud will go on to form other clouds once the weather conditions allow. Clouds don’t truly die. The sky is both ephemeral and everlasting. I am reminded of how our lives on earth are limited, but our lives in heaven will be eternal.
Heaven is like the sky, but it doesn’t have to be confined to the concept of the sky. What matters in our faith is that heaven means something to us. The sky held special meaning to ancient peoples. For them, it was a mysterious boundary that could not be traversed. What holds the same significance to us today? What on earth inspires awe in you? Is it a complex boundary, like the unknown biology within the most hidden parts of the human brain? Is it the mystery of what lies in the deepest of seas humanity has barely explored yet? Or it could even be a simple feeling that God is with us.
I once had a dream that I was walking through the streets of an impoverished, crime-ridden neighborhood. I came across people sitting outside a large brick wall with a gate. It was the gate to Heaven, and they were gathered there because feeling near to Heaven gave them a sense of hope and protection. They could live with some peace of mind after meditating on heaven.
Whether it’s in the wonder of the skies above or something else entirely, we can see Heaven, here and now, each in our own way.
Rune Marie Nielsen is a pastor, writer, and illustrator who seeks to show ‘a glimpse of divine eternity’ in her work. Educated in Hong Kong, Rune finds creativity in both the complex and simple aspects of life, from meditation and theology to the bowl of noodles she ate for lunch.
Visit runepainter.com to view more art by Pastor Rune.
