What could I possibly need? Some toothpaste, perhaps? A paper handkerchief? A call in the morning? Trifles, all. Bagatelles. Mere nothings. Of course I shall have what I need. What is that compared with what they have already given?

John Killinger, Bread for the Wilderness, Wine for the Journey, p. 35.)

Indeed, with so much already, who are we to ask for more? We are God's children -- that is who we are -- and children are never bashful to ask for what their parents have to give. What then does our heavenly Parent have to give? Luke, in his rendering of our text tells us: "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" (Luke 11:13).

God's gift to us is not in the realm of things, but in the sphere of the Person. The Holy Spirit, the personal presence and power of God within and between, is first, last and always God's gift in response to our asking and seeking and knocking. At issue is not the gift which God has to give, but our openness to receive what God has to give.

Rabbi Harold Kushner, who went through the faith-challenging experience of seeing his fifteen-year-old son die of a rare disease which aged him before his years, faced squarely the issue of God and what God has to give in prayer. "There are several ways in which we can answer the person who asks, 'Why didn't I get what I prayed for?'," Kushner writes. "And most of the answers are problematic, leading me to feelings of guilt, or anger or hopelessness.

- You didn't get what you prayed for because you didn't deserve it.

- You didn't get what you prayed for, because you didn't pray hard enough.

- You didn't get what you prayed for, because God knows what is best for you better than you do.

- You didn't get what you prayed for, because someone else's prayer for the opposite result was more worthy.

- You didn't get what you prayed for, because prayer is a sham; God doesn't hear prayers.

- You didn't get what you prayed for, because there is no God.

If we are not satisfied with any of these answers, but don't want to give up on the idea of prayer, there is one other possibility. We can change our understanding of what it means to pray, and what it means for our prayers to be answered." (Harold S. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, p. 115.)

Could it be the only answer we have a right to expect is God Himself? How much grief that would save us if we could simply accept that God's answer is God, and seek after only that which God has to give.

Barbara Brokhoff tells about an article in The Charlotte Observer which recounts the story of a cab driver who over the years had become a fairly reliable judge of people. One night he picked up a fare who appeared to be a desperate man. The man asked to be taken to the corner of Providence and Queen roads and there commanded the cabbie to stop. For a long time they just sat in the cab with the meter running. The man said nothing, just stared.