Shifting Shadows

I ran across a part of scripture today that I am not sure I have ever read before.

Check out John 11:16...

Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.”

As I read that I was impacted by this guys desire to go with Jesus back to the place where just days before they were trying to stone Him. But then I had a moment of pause... Wait... Thomas? Is that THE Thomas, Doubting Thomas, the guy I so relate to that wanted to see Jesus before he would believe?

So I decide to check out and see if I could tell if that was him. Check out John 20:24-29...

One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”

Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas,“Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”

“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.The Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

It's the same guy. The same one that was willing to go and die with Jesus is actually more widely known as the doubter. The one that needed to touch Jesus or he wouldn't believe that He had been risen from the dead.

And, oh how much I relate. One day, maybe make that one moment I am all in, I get it, I am confident in it, I will preach it to anyone walking by. And then the next moment, I want proof, I need more assurance, I want to feel it or see it!

I am soooo thankful that Jesus knows me and is not surprised by ANY of my changes. And I am even more thankful that...

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17