No Doubt About It

No Doubt About It “Wow! You should have been there, it was miraculous!” “You are crazy! That could never have happened! I would have to see it to believe it!” Sometimes our stories of special gifts in our lives, premonitions about the future and impossible to fathom outcomes seem like tall tales of a great or adolescent imagination. When we spend time with God our hardened hearts are softened allowing us to believe in God’s gifts of the impossible, our blurry eyes are more acute to see holy matters that have already come to pass, and a sleeping spirit is awakened to what is to come in the future. “Do not doubt but believe. Blessed are those who have not seen, but have come to believe.” An awe inspiring quote by someone divinely named Jesus. John 20:19-29 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’ A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’