How Often?

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.”

Matthew 7:7-12

How often have I asked for bread
and said I trusted you alone,
but dreamed a feast of flesh instead,
and in my hands I clutched a stone?

How often have I asked for fish
but cherished serpents in my breast?
I did not know my deepest wish,
and what I loved I could not guess.

Yet water I have ever sought,
and you have given it and more:
a father to me, O my God,
and when I knocked, an open door.

A mother in the dead of night
who came to me before I called;
infinities of hope and might
within your tender arms unfold.

And when I long for only stone,
still give to me your holy bread;
and when I call for bread alone,
fill me with every word you've said.

So show me ever more my heart
that I may learn where my love lies
and follow fast—oh, may I start!—
while yet your daylight fills the skies.