Ask and you shall receive

Months ago, our 10-year-old son decided he wanted a pet bird.

It seemed as if it might be a passing interest, so I didn’t pay much attention at first. We certainly didn’t need something else to take care of in our busy household. We did not need a pet.

He kept asking. And asking. And asking.

He found a picture of a zebra finch, and learned everything he could about finches – what they ate, how long they lived, and how to take care of them.

“Did you know they like fruit?” he would say. “No more than 20 percent of their food should be treats.”

I found myself getting pulled into conversations about this unfamiliar topic. We watched his interest continuing to grow.

Some nights at bedtime he would lie in bed moaning, “I want a bird. I want a bird. I want a bird.”

One day I was working on my laptop and a paper airplane came sailing over onto the table. I unfolded it and found, “I want a bird,” written on it over and over and over. This wish wasn’t going away.

“What intentions do we have tonight?” I would say at bedtime.

“God, give me a bird,” he would say.

It had seemed like a terrible idea at first, but I could feel myself weakening.

“Maybe after the pandemic is over,” my husband and I told him. That seemed like a safe answer that bought us some time to see whether this was a good idea. But as the quarantine continued and the pandemic didn’t seem to be nearing any sort of an end, asking a child to wait for a pet seemed harder than making him wait for the end to a pandemic.

Meanwhile, I started feeling that getting a pet bird would be something that was within our control. Maybe, just maybe, it would even be fun.

Then his brother started asking if he could have one, too. Two birds? We knew nothing about birds. But my husband and I started to think about it. As the idea took root, it seemed like a good idea to get the birds at a time when we were home to take care of them.

So, we bought a cage and everything we needed, and we brought two zebra finches home. Jumping into this new chapter for our family was both scary and exciting. But it has brought us so much happiness. Ron and Hermione are entertaining and sweet as they fly and jump around their cage, and they have quickly captured our hearts with their little personalities.

Some days, as I watch our little boy talking to the birds or feeding them treats, I think back to his relentless asking, his constant longing, for a bird of his very own. He wanted one so badly. And he kept pressing forward, hoping, asking and expressing his wish in every way he could.

If only I approached prayer with that kind of persistence. I should plead and ask and place my hopes and needs and concerns directly before God, knowing that I might need to keep asking and asking, but it will be worth it.

God knows what is best for us. He knows when the timing is right and when we are ready for what we are asking for. Sometimes the answer might be “no” or “not yet” or “not quite that.” But we can continue to storm heaven and talk to Jesus about what is on our hearts – even when it might seem like an impossible situation.

“Whether, therefore, we receive what we ask for, or do not receive it, let us still continue steadfast in prayer,” said St. John Chrysostom. “For to fail in obtaining the desires of our heart, when God so wills it, is not worse than to receive it; for we know not as he does, what is profitable to us.”

Particularly in a time when the challenges seem so significant and the possible solutions are unclear, prayer can bring comfort and hope and answers.

Persistence and prayer helped bring two little birds into our home. And, they have been an unexpected blessing

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