Jesus cares about where you are – physically, yes, but more importantly, spiritually. He knows we have doubts about Him, about ourselves, about our future. And He moves to meet us where we are.

Thomas missed the meeting. Did he forget? Did he get distracted? Did he get missed on the invitation list? The Bible doesn’t tell us.

From John 20

¹⁹ That Sunday evening^[b] the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. ²⁰ As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 

Where were you, Thomas?

²⁴ One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. ²⁵ 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.”

And so Jesus comes eight days later…

²⁶ 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. ²⁷ 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!”

The doubt of humanity. The Scriptures are replete with examples of people God approaches and are met wtih their doubt; Abraham and the inheritance of Cannan, Gideon and his troops to battle the Midianites, John the Baptist (are you the one or should we look for another?) and even the early church having spent hours praying for Peter’s release from prison thought the messenger saying “he’s here” was crazy!

Doubt has marked most spiritual journeys. Jesus understood Thomas and offered what he needed, not chastising Thomas for his doubts but challenging him to believe!

“Only when the Gospel is no carried story, no rumour heard and passed on by us for what it may be worth, but first hand evidence, what we have seen, what we have looked upon with our own eyes, what we handled with our own hands, what we have proved in our own experience, not simply an unthinking acquiescence in what others say, which may well all be very well as a beginning but something has happened to us – only then does our belief grow vital.” – Robert Coleman