Jeanette Renouf

My dear friends,

I love the final lines from today’s lesson from Hebrews: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” This is then followed in the lectionary by the story of doubting Thomas in the Gospel of John.

Thomas, like a good scientist, would not believe until he actually saw the evidence that the other Apostles were reporting. When he saw, he then believed.

But Jesus praises those who believe but, like us, never actually see. With some things we should want to see the facts, evidence, or proof, before we believe—for our own safety and that of others. There are other things, especially in our spiritual lives, that we need to believe on faith.

Some years ago I taught a class at Saint Philip’s on Hildegard of Bingen and talked about her visions. Over several weeks members of the class took the risk to share some of their visions, or experiences of the presence of God or Christ.

The majority of the class had had such experiences but never told anyone for fear of being seen as crazy or odd. It led me to believe that a lot more people have such experiences than we know.

We walk in faith, especially this time of year as we await the birth of Christ anew in our lives. Though we do not see God or Christ we see evidence of them everywhere in creation, in one another, in family, in all the good in the world that goes on unreported. And the good is much greater than the evil. This leads us to hope. And as we hope we then act so that our lives reflect our hope and belief.

May your life be filled with hope and love this holiday season, and with blessings in the New Year.

Love and Peace,

 —Jeanette