invitation

come close, thomas
touch my hands
my feet

look at my side

come greet
your risen
Lord

draw near
my brave
dear doubting
thomas




*Eight days later, Christ appeared to Thomas and the others. Having been away when he first appeared to the ten, Thomas insisted “unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.”


As Frederick Buechner points out, “Imagination was not Thomas’s strong suit. He called a spade a spade. He was a realist. He didn’t believe in fairy tales, and if anything else came up that he didn’t believe in or couldn’t understand, his questions could be pretty direct.”

I like Thomas because he isn’t fake and doesn’t try to hide his doubt. I am comforted that Christ spoke to Thomas in the same “direct” way that Thomas questioned.

As Buechner sums it up, “He had no questions left to ask and not enough energy left to ask them with even if he’d had a couple. All he could say was, ‘My Lord and my God’ and Jesus seemed to consider that under the circumstances that was enough.