You’ve probably seen the insurance commercial featuring actor J. K. Simmons leading a novice through the insurance company’s Hall of Claims. The claims are fascinating: a bull moose who rams a swing set which, in turn, crashes through the windshield of an RV, a car in a parade which catches fire in the trunk, a father and daughter dancing on the floor of their house whose pounding feet knock paint cans off a shelf in the basement spilling paint everywhere. Fascinating stuff! Every commercial concludes the same way with Simmons declaring, “We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.”

Elsie and I often feel that way. God has given us insights into problems and difficulties because we’ve seen a thing or two. We’ve been in ministry to people either as a pastor-wife team, directors of a nonprofit purity ministry, or counselors for nearly 40 years. We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two!

So had the disciples of the Lord Jesus.  They had seen the resurrected Lord. John 20:18, 25 says, “Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news, “I have seen the Lord!”  When Thomas returns to the upper room, the disciples exclaim, “We have seen the Lord!” These believers and over 500 others had seen the resurrected Christ (1 Corinthians 15:5-8). They knew He was alive! They had seen Him! The adage says, “Seeing is believing.” That is no more true than in the case of the believers in the Early Church. They knew what they saw and what they saw was a living Lord Jesus Christ. No one could deny it.

Yet, God says that, though we have not seen the resurrected Jesus Christ, like those who have we are also blessed. For Christians, “Believing is seeing.” John 20:29 contains the words Jesus spoke to Doubting Thomas, “. . . Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” That includes you and me. We are blessed because, though we have not seen the resurrected Christ, we KNOW He is alive!

Easter is just around the corner!

Irv