Seeing Then Believing

Good morning, Five Minute Families. This past Sunday was Easter. We saw a video that used the forward and back way of describing Good Friday. The first reading forward exemplified the disillusion and confusion that the death of Christ brought to those who were observing, but the second reading backward put the truth of the Cross in proper perspective. Likewise, both Sunday school and the sermon focused in on John 20. Verse 8 tells us that John reached the tomb first, paused, then went in, saw the empty tomb, and believed. John saw and then believed. I have struggled for ten years to come to terms with the crisis of faith I had when our son died. God is faithful, always faithful, even when we are not. This past Sunday morning I considered the concept that John saw and then believed. As I pondered that, I was filled with God’s peace about the disillusion and confusion I had felt when our son died. I didn’t realize that I had held a false belief that if I lived a good life for God that I would be rewarded with good things - not material things - but good relationships and good results from my endeavors. In our son Jedidiah’s death, God was showing me His power, His grace, and His purposes. Our son’s short life had a purpose and made an impact. It changed me, and that impact in me affects every life I have the opportunity to touch: my husband, my children, the grocery store clerk, the families that come to CVR, and on. The disciples did not yet understand the old testament scriptures that Jesus had quoted them. They did not understand what He had so often alluded to before His death on the cross. Peter and John both saw the miracle of Jesus’s being gone from the tomb, but they still left. Peter saw, left, and wondered while John saw, believed, and still left. The ones who walked with Jesus still needed Him to show Himself. Please don’t get us wrong. We are not throwing away verses like Hebrew 11:1 that states, “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” God has revealed Himself t