Faith comes

The night is as bright as the day,

For darkness is as light to you. Psalm 139:12

 

Read John 20:1—9

This is a little education for me in the nature of my faith, how faith comes. John told all his stories that I may have faith and life in the name of Jesus.[1] It’s partly about seeing. Mary Magdalene had seen quickly. The tomb was open. She panicked. Grave robbers! Enemies did this! She raced off to alert Peter and the other disciple. The other disciple looked in. He saw the body wrappings. Peter looked. He looked from within the tomb. He saw the head wrappings rolled up and put away by an ordered hand. So all was not according to Mary’s first impression. It was not the work of vandals. Not chaos. Not the mark of the enemy. Another hand did this. Then the other disciple enters. He builds on those impressions. He lets the scene speak to him. Now he sees with recognition. Now what he sees addresses him. Now he believes. This is God’s hand. Faith comes. Faith comes when I let God speak to me through what he has done.

Prayer
Father, thank you for what you have done. You speak to me through what you have done. You bring me to faith through what you have done. What you have done is to place me within the creation. What you have done is to raise Jesus from the dead. What you have done is to speak through the scripture so that my faith can be deepened, so that I can understand your wholly glorious purpose, enough for me now, the renewal of the creation promised in this very resurrection of the Son of God and Lord of all creation.  Let me look upon these things tonight, and let my faith lead to hope, and my hope to love.

 

 

 

 

[1] John 20:31