I’ve been eating eggs for breakfast for years, and since shortly after we rescued our dog six years ago, he’s virtually insisted I share my eggs with him every morning.
The routine is nearly always the same: he waits for me to get out of bed, dutifully watches as I get out the ingredients, utensils, plate…maybe paces a bit as I cook it up (depending on whether or not he’s deferred eating his own breakfast until he’s had some of mine), walks with me over to my seat, sits as close as he can get, and begins to remind me, repeatedly, that he’s there.
He stares deep into my soul, and if that’s not enough, he accentuates it with some serious begging, or he’ll whimper as pathetically as he knows how. And every once in a while, when he’s especially desperate and I’m not paying close enough attention, he’ll resort to a chest bump to the leg.
Every day, week after week, month after month, year after year, he thinks he has to remind me all over again. That somehow I’ve forgotten him. Like I could.
All the while I’m reminding him, again, that I know he’s there, just like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. I cut off his little pieces and save them until I’m finished, or at least almost. I can’t forget. There’s no way he’d let me. Yes, he’s a dog, but he’s part of my family. He’s my furry little child, and I love him.
“Yes, I know, I remember, you’ll get your eggs when it’s time.”
And so many times during this exchange I think of us.
We have needs and there may be times we’re not sure if God’s going to provide. Has He forgotten me? Does He see me? How is He going to get me out of this situation?
But Jesus tells us our Father knows what we need before we ask Him. (Matt. 6:8)
Yes, we ask for our daily bread (or eggs) and all our needs, but we don’t need to wonder if our Father’s heard us or has forgotten us.
We’re His children and we’re always on His mind and in His heart.
Still, Rocky reminds me of a command Jesus gives us:
“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; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which of you, if your son asks for bread (or your dog asks for eggs), will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil (hurtful), know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!”
Matthew 7:7-11
Rocky’s got it down. He asks, he seeks, and when needed, he knocks his chest right up against my leg. And in the right time, he gets what he’s asked for.
We are invited by Christ Himself to go to our Heavenly Father and A.S.K. – ask, seek, and knock, but not from a place of doubt, not afraid He’s forgotten us, or worse, believing He doesn’t care about us.
We can and must go to Him firmly seated in the foundation of our abiding faith in Him who sent His Son to die for us, who loves us with an everlasting love, and who called us by knocking on the door of our own heart to bring us into relationship with Himself.
“Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask, because we keep His commands and do what pleases Him. And this is His command: to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us.“
1 John 3:21-23
With His Love,
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