"But (Thomas) said to (the other disciples), 'Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks...I will not believe.'"
John 20:25
I think St. Thomas gets a bad rap. After this, he has been called "Doubting Thomas." We don't attach an adjective to the other apostles for their foibles or personality traits, do we? We don't say "Denying Peter," for example. James and John are often called the "Sons of Thunder," for their tempers, but the others come off scott-free. Labels are hard to shake and often not accurate. Thomas was so much more than just the one incident of doubt, but yet, that is what stuck for a couple thousand years! We label people as lazy, loud, obnoxious. I've even heard someone refer to another human being as "evil." What would Jesus think about that? Are we equipped to make a call like that? We are commanded not to, that's for sure. ("Judge not!") Today, let's be aware of the labels we attach to our brothers and sisters. Are they the same labels God would give them? Do we want the unkind labels we give people to stick for a couple thousand years? Love, heidi
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