Are You Doubting Thomas Thomas?

"He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you."    Luke 17:6


     I was thinking about the guy referred to as "Doubting Thomas".   The bible says that when the Disciples told Thomas of their visit by the resurrected Christ, he did not believe it possible.  The bible says that Thomas insisted that he would not believe it to be true until he had seen Christ's wounds himself.   Soon Jesus visited Thomas and showed his scars.  Thomas saw them and then believed.   
     Jesus had scars.  Those scars are what made the difference to Thomas.  Being given new life did not remove Jesus' scars.  The scars remained so that the one who needed to actually "see" them could see them and believe.   Jesus said that it would be much better to have believed without having to see, but He still shows Thomas the scars so that he would believe.
    We are not so very different.   Each of us bear scars.  All very different, but yet all somewhat the same.  I have mentioned the song many times that goes "There's no such thing as perfect people, there's no such thing as a perfect life..."  We all have scars.   Things from our past that God has healed but that we will always carry with us.   God uses the pains from our past to make a difference in the lives of those whom we know.  It might be family or friends who see the difference that God makes in your life... or it may be like what happened in my life.   
     At one point I was struggling with "faith".   All I could see were my failures, and I didn't really believe that God was powerful enough to fix it.  Or that He would even want to "fix" someone as hosed as I was.   A friend called one day and said "Hey I want to talk you".  I went to see them.   This friend and I sat outside for hours one evening.  She talked.  I listened.  She told me how God had worked in her life.  She told me of the problems that she had faced.  They were pretty bad problems.  She told me how she clung to her belief that God could repair the problems.  That God could put her life back in order.   And She told me that it took a while.  She told me how God worked a little bit at a time to rebuild relationships and to rebuild lives.   I had always seen how things were now.  I had never ever thought that it hadn't always been like that....   She showed me her scars.   I was like doubting Thomas.  I had to see the scars to believe.   But having seen the scars I knew that God was indeed more powerful than I had imagined.  And much more capable than I had given Him credit for.   And I turned to Him and asked for help, this time believing that it was possible.  This time with a "mustard seed of faith".  I think you know where it went from there... 
     We all have scars.  We will always have scars.  We might not like them, but we need to be open to sharing our scars with others.   Not all the time.  But as God leads us to...  to help others to know that God CAN heal our wounds.   To help a "Doubting Thomas" to believe.  it's got to make you wonder...
      Dear Lord,  Thanks for how You have control.  Thanks for how You heal our wounds.  Thanks for allowing us to belong to You.  Thanks for taking the time to allow us to grow in our faith.   Thanks for providing living examples of Your healing grace.   Thank you for my friend who's faith is strong.  And for guiding her to the knowledge that sharing her scars with me would help to build my faith.   And most of all, thanks for continuing to love us even though we sometimes have episodes where we lose sight of how totally awesome and powerful You really are.  Please help us to listen to You and to do Your will.