The Picture

Every experience has several components.  Each seems necessary to complete the picture.  Yet at times more information is not helpful!  I often wonder; when is enough, enough?  When is more not helpful?  Do you need someone to tell you a sunset is beautiful when you can see it for yourself?  The balance is always difficult to manage.  On one hand, is the testimony of a firsthand witness sufficient to know something is true?  Do you need personal, physical experience level, proof?  On the other hand the mere taste of an experience may be enough to paint a complete picture, or at least enough to know it isn’t something one should every fully and completely experience.
 
Far too often I find myself demanding God give me completely and total experiencial evidence.   It is as if I cannot, do not, trust the testimony of those with first hand experience.  Bluntly put, I will not take either God or God’s agents at their word.  I must have more!
 
I’m my not first.  Even as Jesus moved among his disciples there was one who refused to believe.  When the moment of their meeting occurred, “Thomas said, ‘My Master!  My God!’
 
Jesus said, ‘So, you believe because you've seen with your own eyes.  Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.’
 
Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book [John].  These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it.” (John 20.28-31) 
 
Today is an opportunity to reach out in faith.  You and I can trust the testimony of those who have been before us; taking the good, using it to break the barriers which separate us from Divinity.  Equally, we can sense the bad, knowing the marks we should stay well away from!  The picture of life is painted by a community, never one individual.  We are part of a wonderful family.  Enjoy the art.