Hi everyone,
About a week ago now, I was outside doing some stuff in the yard when I needed to go into our little outdoor storage space that we have under our porch (and I mean little, the porch is about 4 feet off the ground, it’s like a crawl space but outside of the house). We keep some outdoor tools in there, as well as our bikes during the off season. Anyway, as I opened the door to this little space, I was hit in the face with a thick and frankly disgusting smell. My first thought, of course, was a rodent infestation.
But I kept trying to brush it off because I don’t want to deal with mice right now. I was hoping that my initial thought was wrong because I’d just rather not be right about this. I pretended that this smell was just a normal musty smell because I didn’t see any rodent just yet so out of sight, out of mind.
And the very next day, I saw it. Mouse confirmed. How I wish I were wrong. So I spent a lot of Easter Sunday cleaning out that space, throwing a lot of things away, and sanitizing the the things that I didn’t. I still wish I didn’t see that mouse as then maybe I wouldn’t have had to go through all that work, but I guess that doesn’t change the fact that it was there and made a huge mess over all our stuff.
Here are the readings for next week:
Acts 3:12-19
Psalm 4
1 John 3:1-7
Luke 24:36b-48
Seeing is believing a lot of times, but sometimes it just isn’t. Sometimes we need a bit more explanation of what exactly it is that we’re seeing. We see that in the Acts reading as Peter explained the miracle that the people just witnessed. Then John describes how sin keeps us from seeing and believing. And then in Luke, Jesus goes and eats a piece of fish.
Because when have you ever seen a ghost eat?
But even though these readings took the time to explain what was seen, it didn’t change the fact that what was seen (or even those that aren’t seen) are true. We don’t see every miracle that happens, that doesn’t mean they didn’t happen. We don’t believe everything that we hear or are told, but that doesn’t necessarily make them wrong. We weren’t there when the first visitors saw the empty tomb or when Jesus actually appeared in the flesh, but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen.
And so our faith helps us in knowing what is true to us and what is not, helps us discern what to take as authoritative, helps us in what truths change us or not.
As for me, the Resurrection, although not seen or physically experienced by me in any tangible way, changes me in believing that death doesn’t have the last word, that our lives can continue in those that we’ve affected and influenced, that our story isn’t confined to just our time on earth, but eternally in our contribution to society, our community, and in this body of Christ to which we all belong. While we might not (and likely won’t) have a bodily resurrection and walk the Earth again after we go, but who we are and what we’ve given to the world doesn’t end with us.
That is a resurrection that I can believe in.
Thanks be to God for this gift of new life that continues on even after we don’t! Have a great week, everyone!
Photo by Andy Montes de Oca on Unsplash