Show Me

(Please note: I will be away most of next week and have decided to take a little “Easter vacation.” The next reflection will be posted on Monday, April 11. Please keep me in your prayers.)

The Easter celebration continues, and today we hear once again the story of Thomas, who wanted actually living proof that Jesus had risen from the dead, proof so undeniable that he could actually reach out and touch it with his own hands.

And the risen Lord appeared to him and his friends and gave Thomas exactly what he had asked for. The Gospel passage (Luke 20:19-31) doesn’t actually say that Thomas touched the Lord, but most readers assume that it is so, because Thomas falls to his knees and proclaims, “My Lord and my God!”

Thomas wanted actual living proof. And whatever happened was definite proof for him, as he reacts as only one can react after such an experience.

These details are given to us so that we have proof as well. Not tactual proof, but proof in the details themselves. Jesus appeared. He ate and drank with them. Mary clung to him in the garden. Thomas had his doubts removed. Reread the stories of the resurrection appearances through one particular lens: “Is this proof enough for me?”

I ask a question similar to that every Easter. “Show me You have risen,” I ask. And every Easter season something happens in my life that becomes proof enough for me, and He has never let me down.

It is important, however, that I keep my eyes and ears open and that I don’t demand any particular type of proof like Thomas does, but rather that I understand, and have understood, that a proof will be given to me and that it will come from often surprising and unexpected ways, and sometimes very little and simple ways. Last year, when I was at a particularly low point in my life, a particular book practically fell off the shelf and into my hands, and the book was exactly what I needed at that time, and I was at peace, and the crisis passed and I came out the other side in better shape than I have ever been before. Once again, the Lord gave me his proof. And once again I could proclaim, “My Lord and my God.”

What might you ask of him this Easter Season?

God bless you.