That pickle

For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. — Matthew 7:8

Pickles. Predicaments. Problems. Been there. Done that. Each of us would pass on any of these triple-Ps if we could.

When waking after what may (or may not have been) a good night’s rest, no one throughout the course of history has said, “Ah, yes, I’d like an unavoidable, full-on train wreck today.”

Yet unwelcome and unwanted pickles, predicaments and problems present us with an opportunity. We can rest in Jesus. We can trust Jesus.

Chances are you know the Sunday school song, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” Lyrics to this song do not include, “Yes, He’s got the whole world in His hands—except for me and my struggles. Those I get to keep and handle on my own.”

You do get to keep and handle your own struggles if this is what you choose, but Jesus is asking, seeking and knocking to come into what we feel is our small or wobbly world.

Do we let Jesus into our small or spectacular, our wobbly or wonderful world?

Consciously and unconsciously, we answer this question more times than any of us can count—each day. When we talk to Jesus, even when we just THINK of Him, and this is a habit any of us can form, this is what happens: the door once impossibly blocked opens.

PRAYER: Jesus, help us form the habit of talking with (and thinking of) You more and more often so that the only pickles we experience are on a plate or in a fancy (is it too pretty to open?) jar. Amen.