Jesus walked with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, but they didn’t know it was him. Isn’t that how it always is?

There is a little bit of Thomas is each of us, reaching out for Jesus, wanting to touch him. Don’t think of it as doubt. It’s faith. Go ahead and reach. Stretch out your hands.

Resurrection is not God’s instant magic trick. It’s transformation-m sometimes very gradual. All our sorrows, all our struggles all our losses are being transformed. And so are we.

The story of Jesus’ death is not about a scheme for God to be able to forgive us. It’s about how faithful God is to us even when we’re awful to each other and to God.

Jesus invites us to become blind to our prejudices so we can truly see people.

Jesus sees us not as flawed but as wounded and gifted. The loving recognition of our wounds allows them to propel our gifts instead of inhibiting them.

It’s hard work being born again: it takes vulnerability, honesty, courage and surrender. And we have to start all over. But the cool thing is we don’t have to create our new life: God gives is to us, breath by breath.

Jesus models dealing with our basic ego-needs for power, security and belonging by practicing our Belovedness.