Believe

John 20:19-31

Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

Jesus Appears to Thomas
24Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"
But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."
26A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 27Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

28Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

29Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

30Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31But these are written that you may[a] believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Every once in a while, God smacks me in the face with something great. A song on the radio, the perfect sunset, a random Bible verse. Yesterday, I went to worship with Mom. Sarah was preaching about Thomas.(I love, love, love to hear Sarah talk. I think we're really similar). Sometimes, I think we're all like Thomas. Thomas didn't believe the other 11 that Jesus was there with them. He had to see it to believe it. Sarah told the story of her finding it hard to believe two of her friends were married because she wasn't able to be at the wedding. I think it's hard to believe someone has a new hairstyle, new car, new anything unless I see it. Even then, after I've seen something, it's hard for me to remember and to believe it. A couple years ago, a friend of mine overdosed on drugs and passed away. He was always sitting at the end of my driveway, over peeking in my window, trying to get me to come over. It took me a good couple weeks to believe he was gone. Even at the funeral, I just sat there wondering what I was going to do without him. Seeing him lying on the alter wasn't real. It was like an out of body experience. Did Bobby come back and prove to me he was dead? No. He isn't Jesus. Did Jesus have to come back to Thomas to prove to him he was risen? Nope. But that's the kind of God we have.
God smacks us in the face all the time...are you paying attention to see His grace?