The tension between show me and trust Me.

24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Jesus said to him, [a]“Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:24-29

It was a clear night here the other night, which doesn't happen a lot during the rainy season.  It was nice because I could see the stars from the deck while I was sitting in the hot tub.  I just had to tilt my head skyward and there they were.

I have a friend who has a really good camera and he was able to take some pictures from his yard of a couple of nebulae.  I thought that was way cool.  He knows where to look and he can see them with his camera lens  I think a nebula is just another way God shows off His amazing creation. 

But I digress...

Anyway, when the sun shines, or when it's cloudy, I would have no idea the stars are there.  They don't stop existing, though, just because I cannot see them.  It just has to get dark for me to see that they're still there.  Stars are uniquely different from the moon.  Sometimes the moon is visible in the daytime.  The stars however, they only show in darkness.  Yet even in darkness, God arranged the stars  so that man can use them to navigate his way.   

God is good like that.  

I trust the stars are there because if the conditions are right, I can see them in their place and have no earthly reason to suspect that just because it's light or cloudy that they're not right where God put them. I know they're there because I've seen them for myself.

Yet when it comes to trusting God, sometimes I think I'm more like Thomas than the rest of the disciples.  When told of the Resurrection of the Christ, his response was one of doubt instead of trust.  Thomas, like so many of us, wanted to see it for himself in order to believe it.

From a human perspective, sometimes that makes sense.  But from a Kingdom perspective, not so much.  When Thomas showed up ans saw Jesus for himself, his response was to say "My Lord and my God."  It's interesting to note here that Jesus did not rebuke Thomas for calling him "my God".  In fact he told Thomas  that, "...blessed are those who have believed without seeing."

I see God moving in my life.  I don't see Him personally, but I do see Him at work.  I hear that still, small voice sometimes guiding the way.  Other times, it's a timely word from a friend, or a Bible verse for just such a moment as the one I'm in to help me out.  It's at those times I believe God is without seeing Him face-to-face.  But there's always that tension.  Abraham and Sarah in the Old Testament are prime examples of that.  Sometimes Abraham trusted himself or tried to hurry God's plan for him along with consequences that are ongoing even today.  We want to see it to believe it.  The more Biblical answer is to believe first, because without faith, we are told, it is impossible to please God.  Yet, sometimes the biggest battle I fight in my head is the tension between knowing God can and not knowing if God will.

Where are you at today?  Are you having faith God and trusting Him or are you more like Thomas before Jesus showed him?  It's not always easy to trust what you can't see, but like the stars in the daytime, just because you can't see God doesn't mean He's not there.