Hiding in plain sight
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
John 20:27
I don’t know exactly when it began, but some time ago, I started to pray this prayer,
God, where are you?
It was a prayer that was born out of my suffering and seemed to provide the soothing balm I needed when I went into a panic or had great anxiety. I would pray it wherever and whenever I needed it- at the grocery store, in a crowd of people or when I just felt alone. But as I began to emerge from my suffering during Easter, I started to see the prayer as a sort of game. The desperation of God, where are you? turned into God, where are you! My prayer turned from one of unbelief to belief. From desperation to exhilaration.
The same holds true for our friend Thomas in today’s gospel. Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared after He was resurrected. He had to “see” Jesus for himself.
The Lord gives us that same mercy, to see Him as He knows we need to see
These prayers and wanting we have to “see” the Lord increase our faith. Help me to see you Lord in this situation, or that one. As we travel through difficult times, even gut-wrenching moments, we can always pray that prayer, even if we don’t believe, even if we cannot see. We begin to travel from unbelief to belief as the Lord changes our hearts and opens our eyes.
Today, I hope you will open your eyes to where God may be hiding in plain sight in your life. Begin to pray, God where are you? even if you are praying it in unbelief. Marry that prayer today to Divine Mercy Sunday, and watch God’s mercy gush forth from every side.
And like Thomas, when the Lord appears in your life today, you too can shout, My Lord, and my God!