Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Worship (04/02/26)
-
TITLE: My Lord and My God | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
04/08/26 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
This group had shared so much. Miracles, prayers, dreams, and only the week before, a celebration of thousands welcoming a king. All the hopes of the nation had risen in a chorus of worship. And now, it had all vanished. Grief squeezed his soul like a shroud, but none of the others grasped the pang of his reality. “We have seen him,” they said. “Right here while you were away.”
His arms were still folded across his chest, holding himself together as others reached through their illusions toward hope. How could friends be so deluded? No one survived crucifixion.
“He told us to touch him. He told us not to doubt and be troubled. He showed us he wasn’t a ghost.”
Thomas’s statement was firm. “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, the spear wound in his side, unless I touch him for myself, I will not believe.”
His jaw hurt, it was clenched so hard. The stories were preposterous. Angels. An empty tomb. A gardener. An encounter on a road. And now this? The others continued to whisper their stories as if repeating them somehow could make it all real.
“We gave him broiled fish and he ate it. He told us how everything that happened was a fulfillment of what we’ve been reading in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
The teachings of Jesus rolled like tumbleweeds through his mind. Had it all been an empty quest? Seven days and seven nights of restless pacing. Nibbling. Questions grew like chains around his heart, suffocating faith and hope. Where was he now if he’d been here before? Maybe it was time to move on before the soldiers broke down the door and crucified them all.
“He helped us understand that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. It happened just like he told us.”
Thomas sifted facts from fiction. His mind swirled. Why hadn’t Jesus shown up while he was there?
Then, the air shifted. Not with a sound, or a movement. Something deeper. An awareness of a presence pressing into the space between heartbeats. Time froze. Breath caught. Darkness fled.
The voice was unmistakable. The same- and not the same. Familiar, yet weighty, forceful, probing. “Peace be with you.”
Thomas’s heart slammed against his ribs. No. It couldn’t be. And yet, there Jesus stood. Alive. Not a shadow. Not a memory. Not a dream shaped by grief. He shook his head and focused. The wounds? Yes, they were there.
Paralysis froze his limbs. Every argument he’d built, every wall he’d raised, every careful defense against disappointment-it all crumbled in a single breath.
Jesus turned toward him, not past him. “Thomas. Reach here with your finger, see my hands. Reach here with your hand, put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving-but believing.”
The invitation stunned him at the core of his being. Jesus had heard him, every word, as he wrestled for faith and hope. He’d heard the refusal to believe and yet he was here, welcoming relationship again.
His legs buckled, his breath shallow. The room faded away-the others, the flickering lamps, the walls. There was only this moment of reality.
Jesus stepped forward. Near. Solid. Flesh. Warm. Alive. Real. The wounds, an open testimony of victory, forgiveness, life beyond life.
Doubt disintegrated. Fear fled. Grief galloped out of sight. “My Lord … and my God.”
The worship was real, intense, transformational. It was no longer a choice. It rose unbidden, unstoppable, a surrender of everything he had been trying to hold together.
The others pressed in, filled with joy, jabbering, hugging, and celebrating in a fashion out of rhythm with despair. The certainty of loss disappeared. He was in the presence of the Holy One.
The smile broke out without restraint. His feet freed him to dance with abandon. The weight of the world slipped off his shoulders and the hope of heaven filled his soul. There was nothing like this. This was the beginning of everything good.
Borrowed from Luke 24 and John 20.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
Well-written