Story: Thomas really believes

I wasn’t with the others at first. I was out and about trying to sort a few things out. If I had been there I would have seen him for myself: his hands, his feet and his side. I would have known that Jesus was alive again! I would have heard him say, ‘Peace be with you.’ What a comfort that would have been. I was so confused. I didn’t know what to do, where to go or what to believe. I had believed in Jesus and now he was dead.

When I did join them, they were full of the story! How Jesus just appeared in the locked room and greeted them. How he had shown them his wounds. Their grief and fear had been turned to joy! Jesus had renewed their mission and reminded them to forgive; breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’

People say I doubted, but I just didn’t believe. I didn’t want to. How could I? I had seen his dead body. Jesus alive? Even seeing wouldn’t be enough for me.

‘I won’t believe,’ I said, ‘unless I touch his wounds myself.’ I lived with the story for a very long week. I kept wondering if it could possibly be true. Could Jesus really be alive? Why would my friends make up such a story if it weren’t true?

Now, I’m wondering how I could have got things so wrong. I should have known. Jesus appeared again, only this time I was there! I saw him with my own eyes. I heard him with my own ears. ‘Peace be with you,’ he said.
Then he invited me to touch the wounds in his hands and his side.

I wanted to hide with embarrassment, but something kept me going. I did what he said and then looked him in the eye and said, ‘My Lord and my God.’ Now, whenever I am tempted to doubt, I remember what he said that day. ‘You believe because you see. Happy are those who don’t see, but still believe.’