More often than not, it is true that what we ask for, will in some way be answered.
Granted, what we ask for is not always what we get. Often it is some version of what we ask for. Finding out what my wife wants for her birthday or Christmas can be a similar challenge.
In the weeks leading up to the event I will often ask what she would like to do for either of these. Most of the time the response is, “Oh I don’t know. . .” I have come to learn that this phrase does not necessarily translate into her being stuck on ideas.
More often than not, she has a very clear sense of what she wants, only she does not believe she will get it. Essentially, she has learned not to set herself up for failure or disappointment.
Too many birthdays and Christmas’s have come and gone from her youth of carefully describing and articulating exactly what she would like, only to receive the knock off version or some other toy that is close, but not quite what she asked for. So, most of the time, by the time her birthday and Christmas rolls around, she has already purchased, on her own, what she really wants.
In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says, “ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you” (Luke 11: 9). Jesus invites us to bring before God our desires, our hopes, and dreams. These are in part the fragments of our lives that matter to us.
Because they matter to us, they too matter to God.
But we should be careful about what we ask because God does listen and God will always respond, just not always in the way we want or expect; but always in ways we need.
