Or is it like

... like the man who on an arduous journey comes to a certain town of which he has heard before, and stopping for refreshment, realizes the town looks familiar as though he has been there once in his life. He pays the clerk for his drink. He asks about the town and the clerk recites his best description of the locale. The man realizes this is where he belongs, the place for which he has longed. To stay means to fulfill his deepest desire to be at peace, to discover everything about the town, every nuance, every joy the town offers. To leave, to continue his journey brings to mind a dread of returning to his sojourn. He decides to stay. Isn’t this the Christian journey, arriving at the foot of the Cross, discovering God with whom before you were familiar, but now you wish to know Him as you know yourself, as He wishes to be known to you? Has He not brought you to this place and found you there at the right time of discovery or your being found? Having come to this place, you covet what it offers, not because someone else has it, but because until now, you have not known it, and beginning to know it, you want to know more. When more is offered, not only more do you want but also to understand the giver in the gift. To understand this giver as a child understands these things, give thanks to Laura Joffe Numeroff and her book, “When You Give A Moose A Muffin.” The beginning of the book states simply what evades the theologian in complexity. Here are the beginning words:

When you give a Moose a muffin, he’ll want some jam to go with it. So you’ll bring out some of your mother’s homemade blackberry jam. When he’s finished eating the muffin, he’ll want another. And another. And another. When they’re all gone, he’ll ask you to make more. You’ll have to go to the store to get some muffin mix. He’ll want to go with you. When he opens the door and feels how chilly it is, he’ll ask to borrow a sweater. When…

The story continues until it circles back saying,

And chances are, if you give him the jam…

This is a life seeking to know God, not to become familiar, but to be intimate with the One who made us, who after all is intimate with us, knows us, loves us, desires us to come to Him. To know God is to spend time with God, living in his time, remaining thankful for what He provides, not asking for more than what He gives as we are prepared to receive. After all, the testing of our faith produces perseverance. Through grace, He gave us His son to reveal himself to us. Look to the Son and see the Father. And when He offers us a muffin, He will say to us, “There is more where that came from.”