GC Easter Message - My Lord and My God

Recently, the Lord got on me about not being transparent. He chastised me for only telling part of the story, the glory part and not lifting up my skirt and showing someone my scars. It was only when I thought the person would walk away for good, not learning any more about me or Jesus, did I relent to bare my naked wounds. As long as I hid behind a mask, she would never know me or my Lord. Was it hard? Absolutely, it was hard.

Would I do it again? I don’t know, but I hope so.

Jesus didn’t have to prove a thing to Thomas, but He did and I believe He did so because He wanted Thomas to be transformed too. He wanted Thomas to have an encounter with Him that would render the disciple useful for future work. If he saw and touched those wounds, the word of Thomas’ testimony would heal, deliver and above all, lead others directly to Jesus. The people receiving that eyewitness testimony would have something to think about and something to cling to in their hours of despair. If this man who doubts believes, they’d think, then maybe there is something to this Jesus. Maybe the words of the prophets are true; by His stripes I can be healed.

I believe that it is also the pain of Thomas’ loss of the Savior that would serve as his own scar and wound. We don’t read another thing about him after this encounter, so it is safe to assume that the wound and scar he carried was internal, it was his grief. Jesus, after all, was his close friend, his confidant and his Lord. Just sharing that grief could have potentially moved someone else, not only to be healed of their own hurts, but could have inspired them to reach out to Jesus for eternal life. When Doubting Thomas reached into Jesus’ side, he had to have realized how precious and priceless that wound was and would be to him throughout his life.

Jesus wounds are precious. As followers of Him, our wounds and scars are precious to Him. It is in our wounding and the testimony of the comfort, the love, the redemption and healing He gave us that He is best glorified. Instead of thinking those wounds are worthless reminders of our sins or other people’s sins against us, we should rejoice in the knowledge that those wounds and scars validate our service to Him and above all, above all, His service to us.