Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad I didn’t say “banana”?
There was a stage of my son’s childhood when the above ‘knock, knock’ joke was told multiple times a day. It seemed there was no stopping him in his quest to share the giggles he would get by telling it (usually the giggles started as soon as he started to speak).
I think that what children like about knock, knock jokes is that they get to ask us a question that we have to respond to. They are initiating, providing an opportunity for us to respond. They know how we should respond, but we do not always follow through on fulfilling that expectation (after the millionth time we hear it).
It is easy to reach the point of apathy towards what is offered to us, over and over again. We hear it, we know how we ‘should’ respond, but we do not always follow through in responding in line with what is being offered.
As I was reading from Revelations recently, I was captured by the knocking.
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
Revelation 3:20
God is the initiator here, He is at the door, knocking.
The door this speaks of is the door to our hearts … the hearts that He first knit together in our mother’s wombs (Psalm 139:13).
And He leaves it up to us to choose, of our own free will, whether or not to open the door, and let Him in.
I think that it is common that we open the door, only to close it again, leaving the Initiator at the doorstep, maybe even many times.
But, like that preschooler with a gem of a joke to tell us, He waits, and knocks again, and again, and again. His offer is always there. He does not leave His post, continually initiating the offer of his pearls, desperate for us to see the eternal value in what He has to give.
It is easy to reach the point of apathy towards what is offered to us, over and over again. We hear it, we know how we ‘should’ respond, but we do not always follow through in responding in line with what is being offered.
He takes the first step and knocks, but God does not force himself in.
A couple of months ago I received an email forward of a humorous depiction of a man’s experience having had a colonoscopy. I laughed so hard that I thought my insides would burst from the intensity of my giggling.
itsawonderfilledlife 