Somewhere back in my Bayonne past I wanted a fish tank more than anything in the world.  I would make daily trips to the Fifth Street Pet Shop and look at all the different fish in the metal edged tanks (the world has since upgraded to all glass.)  I was always shy about asking my parents for things so it took me awhile to ask my mother for the fish tank.  My father overheard this request and said “If you stop fighting with your sisters you can have a fish tank.”  Well, he did not say how long the sentence would last but I was determined to get that fish tank so I stopped all forms of arguments and disagreements with my sisters.

This went on for awhile, my parents figuring they had a good thing going and perhaps wondering that if I got the fish tank there would be a return to conflict.  Finally my sisters got suspicious about this new Ray and pried it out of my mother that I wanted a fish tank and we had struck a deal.  So my sisters rose to the new challenge and really let me have it.  I lost my cool, let them have it back, and figured I lost all hopes of a fish tank. 

My parents bought me the fish tank anyway. 

God’s love is not a “let’s make a deal” thing.  We are not good simply to get something.  God does not love us simply because we are good but because we “are.”  This is not what the Our Father is about.  But as important as the prayer is, equally important is the coaching that Jesus gives us before and after the prayer.

God knows what we need before we ask.