Reflections for Youth - Thomas and the Turtle

So, here's a story. (Forgive me if you have heard this one before:)

One night, my husband was driving, and I was not paying attention to anything that was happening outside of the car.  I was looking at my phone, of course.  As we were driving down the hill into town, I finally glanced out the window.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a turtle beside the curb of the sidewalk.  It was dark, but I was sure this turtle was heading for the road. I shrieked and my husband panicked, and he made a hard right on to the nearest side street.  I convinced him to go back around the block so I could resue said turtle from pending doom. 

He was skeptical and told me "I don't think you saw what you thought you saw." 

So, let's talk about Thomas the disciple. 

Read John 20: 19-31 

The scripture story starts with the disciples getting to see Resurrected Jesus.  They were all gathered together like Jesus had told them to do, and they were praying and then suddenly, Jesus was in their midst.

That would be pretty exciting - right?  Yet terrifying all at the same time. 

But the passage says Thomas was MIA.  And, because Thomas wasn't there, he missed seeing what the rest of the disciples saw. When the disciples told Thomas what had happened, he didn’t trust what they were telling him.

So maybe the story about Thomas is a little like what happened to me in the car that night.  I was paying attention to something else. Thomas was paying attention to something other than the disciples, so much so that he wasn't even there. 

Now, because I wasn't the one driving, I was not really expected to look at anything outside the car.  But I would have missed that turtle - and so many other things around us if I kept staring at my phone.  Like I stated earlier, my husband was not convinced at all that I saw a turtle. He agreed to go back and check because he needed to see it for himself.  Thomas didn't trust what the disciples were telling him about Jesus.  He said he needed to see it for himself. 

My husband also started to distrust me a little when I claim to see things on the side of the road. Because, well - that turtle I saw turned out to be a plastic grocery bag. 

But the story turns out differently for Thomas. He gets a second chance. Maybe he realized that he was missing out so continued to spend time with the disciples and pray with them.
But, was able to see the resurrected Jesus because of it.

The good news of this story is that it wasn't too late for Thomas. And it's not too late for us. We still have many chances to put aside our distractions and look around. When we do, we just might see Jesus. We just might see how God is working in the world. 

We may not see Resurrected Jesus in the same way that Thomas and the disciples did, but we will certainly be able to better see how Jesus is with us and helping us right here and now.

I know that distractions happen. - But for me, I know that when I focus on paying attention to what's going on with other people and in the world, I have a better chance at telling the difference between a turtle and a plastic bag. 

What's that famous scripture from the Bible? "Blessed are those who don't see but still believe. And blessed are those who believe they see turtles that aren't. "

(Okay, so I made that last part up.)