“Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” Jeremiah 32:27

The ironclad door will not budge, its hinges immobile and unresponsive to my incessant barrage. Resolved, I pound against its frame and beg entry, pleading aplenty and waiting for the slightest crack to thrust myself within. It will not shift an inch, this stalwart giant that blocks my path defiantly, brandishing bolts and locks like a warrior at arms. I falter and consider retreat, but am compelled to knock once more against the formidable door. I wait, desperate for some reply that will by my determined efforts satisfy.

A treasure has slipped through my fingers unaware, and I hunt for the slightest hint of its hiding place. Despite my best attempt to uncover it with searchlight and lantern beam, it eludes me like a firefly masked by midnight blackness. I ransack, dislodge, and overturn in frantic pursuit. My searching bears no fruit, and yet I persist, seeking the prize that lies concealed somewhere close at hand.

The answer escapes me though a thousand convincing words have been presented in its defense. Time settles into seasons that accumulates over years and shakes silence within my ears. Still, I plead like a child conscious that my needs will be met if persistence is the melody chimed endlessly, relentlessly. I will not stop; I cannot stop. I must not stop.

“For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened…If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:8 & 11)

Elizabeth A. Mitchell