The complexity and simplicity...

of the Sermon on the Mount is a great part of its attraction because Jesus' teaching lends itself generously to word pictures in exposition. Some of these word pictures Jesus employs first Himself in teaching His disciples, ie. a bad tree produces bad fruit, a wise man and a foolish man building houses.

The word picture suggested to me in commentary regarding Matthew 7:7-8 was that of a child looking for his mom. This type of a word picture has its reality happening in my house almost on a daily basis. The commentator described the situation as one of "ascending urgency." Urgency is the byword for a boy's interactions. Urgency to conquer, to win, to create and to destroy. Ascending is where my blood pressure can go just as easily as my affection for the Y chromosomal eccentricities.

Here are the verses,

7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

In this mom's quest for privacy, I retreat to the er, second story throne room being careful to close the door. From the nether regions of the house, I hear a faint voice calling, "Mom! Mom! Mom!" There is no attached sound of bleeding or terror so I think that I have a few more minutes. This is the ask.

Then I hear thunderous, though it's only one child, footsteps coming up the basement stairs, then the first landing, then the second landing. All the while calling, "Mom! Mom! Mom!" Because terror and bleeding are still not inflectively factored into the "Mom!", I persist in my delusional privacy. This is the seek.

Slower, creeping footsteps are now heard coming through my room, pausing at the bathroom tile, then proceeding across the master bath tile to come to a stop, right outside the throne room door. Knocking proceeds in conjunction with a tentative, "Mom, are you in there?" This is the knock.

"Yes," I respond, "I'm here."

The child's persistence has paid off having now found me to answer the ascending urgent question, "Can I have a snack?" or "Do worms chew their food?" or "Are you coming out of there?"

Even this child has learned the true concept that persistence to receive an answer is displayed in asking, seeking, and knocking. Where then is the adult lesson, the instruction to the disciple of Jesus? To be as persistent as a child in looking for Mom's answer in every situation--whether the meeting of needs, the quest for discernment, the plea for help, or the desire for wisdom. The relationship of mother to child invests value into both the pursuit and the response. The relationship of Father to child has ever more significance in the command, the obedience and the access.

Ask, seek, and knock that you may receive, find and have opened to you.