Jesus said to his disciples:
“Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which one of you would hand his son a stone
when he asked for a loaf of bread,
or a snake when he asked for a fish?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give good things
to those who ask him.
Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the law and the prophets.” (Mt 7:7-12)
We are a people who look for all sorts of things. If you do not believe me, log in to EBay some time and tell me what you see. One person’s trash is truly another person’s treasure.
We want.
That is a part of our human make up.
We desire.
We will do anything to get that for which we long, even if we have to beg, borrow, or steal it.
Yet, even in our tainted human nature, Jesus tells us, we understand how to care for our own. Jesus says, in effect, even though we may treat others terribly, even though we may be wicked, we know how to give good to our children.
Even more so, our Heavenly Father desires to give to us.
Because unlike us, He is far from wicked. He is love. He is perfect love.
He provides.
All we need to do is ask.
That is a problem for us, though. Because we are in this tainted human nature, we tend to put conditions on everything in our lives. If someone wants something from us, you can rest assured we will give it to them with strings attached.
Because we do that to others, we expect God to do that to us.
Jesus tells us that His Father is nothing like that, though. God is love. He gives us what we need. We just have to ask.
And after we receive, God asks us to give to others as well.
Our world would be a much better place if we could practice that simple admonition of love.
FAITH ACTION: Take your marching orders from today’s Gospel: Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. Make this a day worth remembering for someone. In doing so, it will become priceless for you as well!