Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
—John 20:29
We all consider the blessedness of Thomas as something very wonderful—Christ manifesting Himself and allowing Thomas to touch His hands and His side. It is no wonder that this blessedness could find no words except those of holy adoration: “My Lord and my God!” (verse 28). Has there ever been a higher expression of the overwhelming nearness and glory of God?
And yet Christ said, “Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” True and living faith gives a sense of Christ’s divine nearness far deeper and more intimate than even the joy that filled the heart of Thomas. Here, even now, after the lapse of all these centuries, we may experience the presence and power of Christ in a far deeper reality than Thomas did. “They that have not seen, and yet have believed”—those who believe simply, truly, and fully in what Christ is and can be to them every moment—to these He has promised that He will manifest Himself and that the Father and He will come and dwell in them. (See John 14:21, 23.)
Have we not often been inclined to think of this full life of faith as something beyond our reach? Such a thought robs us of the power to believe. Let us turn to take hold of Christ’s word: “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” This is indeed the heavenly blessing, filling the whole heart and life—the faith that receives the love and the presence of the living Lord.
You ask how you may obtain this childlike faith. The answer is very simple. Where Jesus Christ is the one object of our desire and our confidence, He will manifest Himself in divine power. Thomas had proved his intense devotion to Christ when he said, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him” (John 11:16). To such a love, even when it is struggling with unbelief, Jesus Christ will manifest Himself. He will make His holy promise an actual reality in our conscious experience: “Lo, I am with you alway[s]” (Matthew 28:20). Let us see to it that our faith in His blessed Word, in His divine power, and in His holy abiding presence, is the one thing that masters our whole beings. Then Christ will indeed manifest Himself, abide with us, and dwell in our hearts as His home.