Scripture: "Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."—JOHN xx. 29.
We all count the blessedness of Thomas as something very TT wonderful: Christ manifesting Himself and allowing Thomas to touch His hands and His side. No wonder that this blessedness can find no words but those of holy adoration: "My Lord and my God." Has there ever been higher expression of the overwhelming nearness and glory of God ?
And yet Christ said: "Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." True, living faith gives a sense of Christ's divine nearness far deeper and more intimate than even the joy that filled the heart of Thomas. Here, even now, after the lapse of all these centuries, we may have experienced the presence and power of Christ in a far deeper reality than Thomas did. To those who see not, yet believe, simply, only, truly, fully, believe in what Christ is and can be to them every moment, He has promised that He will manifest Himself, and that the Father and He will come and dwell in them.
Have we not often been inclined to think of this full life of faith as something beyond our reach? Such a thought robs us of the power to believe. Let us turn to take hold of Christ's word: "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet believe." This is indeed the heavenly blessing, filling the whole heart and life, the faith that receives the love and the presence of the living Lord.
You ask how to come to this childlike faith. The answer is very simple. Where Jesus Christ is the one object of our desire and our confidence, He will manifest Himself in divine power. Thomas had proved his intense devotion to Christ when he said, "Let us go, that we may die with Him." To such a love, even when it is struggling with unbelief, Jesus Christ will manifest Himself. He will make His holy promise an actual reality in our conscious experience: "I am with you alway." Let us see to it that our faith in His blessed word, in His divine power, in His holy abiding presence, be the one thing that masters our whole being—Christ will in very deed manifest Himself, abide with us, and dwell in our hearts as His home.
