After
the Lord Jesus died and arose again He appeared to His disciples, but Thomas
was not 
present
that first Sunday night (John 20:24-29)--he missed the gathering of God's
people and the special blessing of seeing the Lord. (That happens to us when
we miss church.) The other disciples told him that they had seen the risen
Lord.
Thomas
said "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger
into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not
believe!"
When Thomas saw the Lord eight days later, the Lord said, Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing."
Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"
Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Betty
was a little girl who loved the Lord Jesus. One day at Sunday school she
learned a verse. She loved it so much that she asked her older sister to type
it out for her. Then Betty folded it and put it in her locket. She knew
that people put the pictures of ones they loved in their lockets. She loved
the Lord Jesus the most of all. She had received Him as her very own Saviour. He
was her dearest Friend and she longed to see Him.
Just
a few days later Betty was in an accident and she was killed. A policeman
picked up her body. He opened the locket and there he found and read the
wonderful verse "Whom having not seen [I] love" (1 Peter 1:8).
Blessed, said the Lord Jesus, "are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Are you among God's
blessed ones?
Have you believed?