We didn’t fall out much, my parents and I. But I remember a couple of arguments which made a deep impression. One was about a toy I wanted – some of you will remember the Etch-a-Sketch toy – a plastic tablet on which you drew by twisting buttons at the base of the screen. I so wanted that toy, years later it remains etched (sorry) on my memory. And another a few years later when I came home from school inspired by a careers talk encouraging us to leave school at 16 and study for a business diploma at college. My father went ballistic. It turned out that my parents were told by a primary teacher that I should go to university, and my apparently lower aspirations were not to be countenanced.

These arguments were long ago, and of course it turned out that screens and e-learning became my professional research field, and I became an academic. Did my parents know this? No, of course not, but they had hopes for me and guided me the best way they knew at the time.

These things came back into my mind when I read today’s gospel reading from Luke. Jesus helps the disciples to learn to pray. To learn what to ask for from God. He reminds us that we will receive what we ask for, just not necessarily the way we wanted at the time. If we set out shopping lists for God and judge his grace by the orders fulfilled, then we are likely to be disappointed. Our online reviews of our orders might go something like this: it didn’t arrive when we wanted, it turned out not to be what we ordered, I can’t get any response from customer service.

But Jesus says God is a loving parent and parents don’t always come up with the goods that we want. If we place ourselves in God’s hands, if we begin to understand how dependent we are on His grace and love, we begin to hear the answer to our prayers. When we pray for the peace and health of our loved ones, when we grieve for loss, when we ask over and over again for the things we want, we should listen well to Jesus. And if we listen well, we can hear the loving Father say to us, I do want these things for you, but you must play your part. I have great hopes for you.

SG