As a kid, I had an 8" black and white TV in my room. Because that's what would come through, I watched a lot of news-like programming. I also had a bad habit of waking up extremely early for school. In those days, when I turned on the little TV in the early hours of the day, all that came on were religious shows. Funny enough, I can remember standing in front of the mirror, acting like the preacher I saw.
One day, something struck me. Normally, there was a presenter in a studio, but on this day, he was out walking and talking. Understand that I didn’t know what the Holy Land meant. At one point, the speaker stopped, looked over his shoulder, and said something like, "I'm here walking on the same dirt roads that Jesus walked."
That didn't sound right.
Later in the day, I asked my mom if Jesus was a real person. In my mind, people talked about Jesus. There were stories about him, and all those churches thought he was important. But it never occurred to me that he was a real person.
Looking back, I didn’t have the words for it then. But that could have been a moment of waking up to the mystery of faith. Jesus is real…and yet unseen. And somehow, across time and distance, people still love him.
That’s what Peter is naming. You haven’t seen Jesus, but you love him. You don’t see him now, but you believe.
Which means faith doesn’t need all the proof. Faith is about trusting the One who’s already reaching for you.
That kind of faith doesn’t merely come from a screen, a story alone, or even from a church. It comes from an encounter. Somewhere along the way, Jesus moves from being someone you’ve heard about to someone you actually know. And when that happens, real love begins to grow, even without sight or certainty.
Someone once said it this way: God is love and love is real.
Stay blessed...john
Comments