Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)
This week’s Gospel ends with one of the most interesting lines in Scripture, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.”
But John…seriously? I would have loved to hear about those other signs. What happened? Did you get a cramp in your hand from writing? Did the local Staples go out of business and you had no way of getting more paper, so you used up the bottom margin of your last page to tell us that there’s more?
I wonder what some of those signs were. Probably lots more healings; maybe, another sign was multiplication of food to feed a large crowd. Perhaps Jesus even miraculously provided money for a poor family to keep their home, and those kids went on to be great saints. We’ll never know ALL of those stories on this side of heaven, but it’s nice to know that there were plenty more.
If you flip open to the very end of John’s Gospel, there’s a similar paragraph, and it’s this one that gives us the answer to why John stops where he did. “There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.”
That one is in fact my favorite verse in the Bible. I love it because when I think about my own experience and all the things that God has done in my life, I feel like John did. I could tell you stories of going to different countries on service trips and the impact we had on the people there – and the impact they had on us. I could tell you about married couples I know who met through chance encounters that could only have been orchestrated by God; my wife and myself included. I could tell you about times when I’ve given someone a simple encouragement or affirmation that changed their life and times that people have done that for me.
I started journaling in my prayer time years ago, and in my closet I have a stack of old journals. Every once in a while I’ll flip back through them and re-read some of these things that God has done in my life. If you’re like me and get easily distracted when you sit down to pray, you should give journaling a try. You don’t need to go out and buy a fancy leather-bound journal and a fountain pen; you can start with a note in your phone and put in some bullet points. But reflecting on the question, “What is God doing in my life right now?” should be a huge part of our faith and our prayer life. Every day we can ask, “Where did I see God working throughout my day? How did I experience his love through other people? How did I bring God’s presence to others, and where did I blow it?” If we begin to do this, we can say with John, “Now there are many other things that God has done in my life. But if I were to journal about all of them individually, I do not think my whole closet would contain all the journals that would be written.”
Photo Credit: Laurelville – Camp & retreat Center Flickr
