by Rhonda Rhea @RhondaRhea

There’s a longstanding debate over which knock-knock joke is the best of all time. I would like to call it a knock-knock knock-down-drag-out, but I’m afraid you’d stop reading and I hate to lose readers in the first paragraph.

We can’t argue that there are definitely knock-knock joke staples. I can give just a word or two of some of these and you hear the entire joke in your head. Like that yodelly one with “little old lady who.” Or how about “Boo who?” “You don’t have to cry about it, it’s only a joke.” That one killed on the playground when I was in third grade. Another classic that was playground gold?  “Orange you glad I didn’t say ‘banana’?” Anytime I did the third-grade equivalent of a standup routine, that one knock-knocked it out of the park. I still have to wonder if the interrupting cow one is the greatest though. Or should I call it the “interrupting c…MOO” one?

While it may remain undecided which knock-knock joke is all-time greatest, I have a couple of favorite knock-knock verses. Not knock-knock jokes. These are knock-knock truths. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives, and the one who seeks, finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8 CSB).

Ask, seek, knock.

Ask who? (That’s not a knock-knock answer-back, I promise.) We are to ask our God. Asking Him for what we need reveals dependence on Him. Even more, it’s an acknowledgement that there’s no other way our needs can be met. Only in and through our all-powerful Creator.

Seek what? Psalm 105:4 spells it out well. “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his face always” (CSB). Seeking Him, and seeking the strength only He can give, is actively engaging in connecting with Him. It’s being aware of what the Father is doing in us and around us. Seeking Him is lining up our will with His, seeking exactly what He desires for us.

Knock how? Yes, ask, seek, and then comes the knock. We ask and seek with our hearts and minds. Knocking is like asking and seeking with action. It’s engaging the knuckles of our hearts and minds, as it were.

Lord, may we pray to You, seek You, serve You—love You—with action. With faithful energy and loving delight.

I want to come to the place where I spend so much time with Him, after just a word or two, I sense His entire will in my head. And heart.

Could I wrap up with a celebration of the Savior who lovingly knocks, and who desires fellowship with us? “See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20 CSB). Glorious Savior, glorious knock.

And forgive me, but how about a little knock-knock joke celebration too?

Knock-knock.

Who’s there?

Ya.

Ya who?

That’s right, yahoo!

Celebrating His love is healthy. Probably even when it’s done in corny knock-knock style. I’m hoping you won’t knock-knock it ‘til you’ve try-tried it.

Rhonda Rhea is an award-winning humor columnist for great magazines such as HomeLife, Leading Hearts, The Pathway, and many more. She is the author of 19 books, including the popular romantic comedies co-authored with her daughter Kaley Rhea, Off-Script & Over-Caffeinated and Turtles in the Road. Rhonda and Kaley have also teamed up with Bridges TV host Monica Schmelter for the Messy to Meaningful books and TV projects. Along with Beth Duewel, Rhonda writes the Fix Her Upper series, and she also co-authored Unruffled: Thriving in Chaos with Edie Melson. She speaks at conferences and events from coast to coast, serves on many boards and committees, and stays busy as a publishing consultant. Rhonda says you can find her living near St. Louis drinking too much coffee and snort-laughing with her pastor/husband, five grown children, and a growing collection of the most exceptional grandbabies.