Discover the Resurrection - Believe the Resurrection!

There are things that you can accept as being true and then there are things that are just ridiculously false.  For instance, I was watching a television program the other night when a commercial for Skittles came on.  There's a guy who is shown milking a giraffe, who has taken a lick out of a rainbow.  But what comes out of the giraffe is Skittles.  The guy takes a handful of the Skittles and laughs while the voice over says "Discover the Rainbow - Taste the Rainbow".  Obviously this commercial is suggesting that a) giraffes can actually lick rainbows, and 2) a person can actually milk a giraffe, and d) a milked giraffe who licks a rainbow will produce a handful of Skittles that you can eat and laugh while doing so.  If that were true, I'd be the first one to laugh.  But it isn't true.  It's ridiculously false!

Okay, before you think that I'm off a bit and been sequestered apart from being around normal people, I know it's only a commercial.  I get it that it's not supposed to be true.  It's just supposed to help you remember that Skittles are fun.  I guess it worked because I remember that much.

I share this as an example because I wonder if the resurrection of Jesus didn't take a while for people to really come to believe.  We've been exposed to this amazing story and we believe it - hands down.  But to those first persons who heard it, it could have sounded like an amazing story, but how to believe it?  Were it not for the firsthand eyewitness testimony of the disciples, I can only imagine it might have sounded dubious to some (see Thomas' story).  They believed because Jesus has appeared to them - more than once or twice.  They knew it to be true.  They believed in His resurrection because they had seen him.

So, my friends, how do we believe in something we cannot see?  If that is ever our question, let's stop for a moment and pay attention to this lesson: we cannot see (for example) a coronavirus without the help of some microscope of some sort.  For argument's sake, let's agree that we cannot see it.  But we cannot deny it is there because of the effect it has had upon our world.  It's presence has changed people's lives, altered our current norms, and given us a surreal sense of life right now.  Further, we are not even certain when we will get back to the new normal.  All because of something many of us cannot see, but we know it is there.

When it comes to faith and believing, we choose to believe for many personal reasons.  They are all valid.  They are all important to each person.  There is one undeniable fact that has always been the constant since Jesus appeared before the disciples one last time and ascended into heaven: the impact Jesus' resurrection has made on the world since it happened is unparalleled.  His victory over death has made all the difference in the lives of millions of people over the past nearly two thousand years.

We grow to trust in the stories that have been handed down from the generations of believers from years and years past.  We grow to trust in the promises of God because we've seen the evidence of them in our lives.  Our belief in God, in Jesus, in His resurrection, the presence of His Spirit and countless other things that have impacted our lives continues to be strengthened all along our journey.

I'm telling you, if there was ever a story where Jesus made giraffes milk Skittles, I'd believe it!

Discover the resurrection!  Believe the resurrection!