Seeing and Believing

 

Lo, one day I visited my office forthwith to examine and treat the maladies and plagues which are afflicting the people of Brookneal.  It so passed that as I was in the House of Healing, there in Brookneal, that a woman of the common folk presented herself to my sight.

"Art thou new here?"  She queried of me.

This struck me as an odd question, for behold, I have served the County of Campbell nigh on seven years.  "I started in this office in Anno Domine 2017," quoth I.  "So, I am new, but not Brand Spanking New."

"Oh," she said.  "Well, I ain't never seen you here before."

"Well, my Fair Lady, that is because I am the Emperor's New Physician and only people of GREAT Quality can see me.  Welcome to the club!"  Is what I desired to say to her, but I held my peace and only said, "I suppose that is because you have been seeing other doctors, but you get to see me now."

This seemed to satisfy her curiosity, at least for the moment and we moved on to other things, such as her health and well-being and discussions of my travels from the far land of Indiana and my youth in the land that was round on the ends and HI in the middle were left for Another Day.

I continued to ponder on this subject, thinking on things that are not seen and whether or not we believe in spite of our lack of vision.  In the Gospel of John, we may read the story of the Apostle Thomas, who after the Resurrection of Jesus heard the stories of a living Jesus and found himself unable to believe.

Sometime later, Jesus revealed Himself to this Doubting Apostle and Thomas, in spite of his doubts, found himself unable to deny the reality of the Resurrection.  

To him, Jesus saith, "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed:  blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (John 20:29)

It is only through the eyes of faith that we can believe the things which we have not seen with our own retinas and optic nerves.  And yet, there is a tremendous blessing for those who trust a risen Savior, even though they have never touched his nail pierced hands or spear pierced side.

This blessing is far greater than the blessing received by those who believe in the reality of the Emperor's New Physician of Brookneal without standing in his presence (or reading his blog).