After eight days His disciples were again
inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood
in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." Then
He said to Thomas, "Reach here with your finger,
and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not
be unbelieving, but believing." Thomas answered and said to Him, "My
Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have
you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."
Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the
disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so
that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that
believing you may have life in His name. John
20:26-31
Thomas had to see Jesus face to face to believe. Like Jesus
said, Blessed are those who didn’t see
and believed anyway. That is you and me…or at least me. I haven’t seen
Jesus, but I know where I stand with Him. I believe that He is the Risen
Savior—the Lamb of God who has taken away my sin—and the sins of the world.
Several years ago a lady who was organizing our advent
celebration at church asked me if I could paint a picture of Jesus. I said
sure—no one knows exactly what Jesus looked like so I felt pretty safe—no photography back then. So
my painting of Jesus could be right—or just my artistic interpretation. Then
she explained that she wanted it to be on a six foot tall canvas—painted with
my hands…not a brush. Well—I said I’d give it a try and I started practicing
out in my garage. She provided the canvas
which I painted black. The idea was that I would print the names of
Jesus in white chalk on the canvas as drama readers recited the names. King of
Kings, Savior, Son of God, Jehovah, Alpha, Omega, Promise, Gift, Way, Truth,
Life, God, Redeemer, Rose of Sharon, Messiah, Christ. Then a choir of men would
sing a Christmas carol while I painted Jesus’ face. I had sketched the face
lightly on the canvas with purple chalk so I would have a starting point—I only
had 5-7 minutes to do the painting. Well, as I started to paint I realized that
there was a purple light shining on the canvas and therefore I could not see my
purple chalk line…I prayed,
Lord—you’ve
got to paint this through me because I’ve nothing to go by. The men sang
and I painted. It was an interesting process—the black of the canvas providing
the “negative” space for the portrait. Jesus did an amazing job in just a few minutes—and although
I’ll never know until I get to Heaven just what He looks like—at least it was a
somewhat believable interpretation of my Savior—with a crown of thorns on His
head. I believe… and I didn’t even see Him, yet.
On this eve of the celebration of Jesus’ birth, may you
believe in Jesus as your Savior—even without seeing Him.
Precious Lord—Please
continue to work in and through me that others would “believe” without “seeing”
You face to face.
© 2012 by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.
All scripture quoted from the New American Standard
Bible (NASB).
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