Sunday, March 14, 2021

Easter Series: Doubting Thomas


It's March, which means it's time to start sending out Easter letters to our sponsored kids! For the past couple of years, I've been doing an Easter series on people who were directly involved with the Easter story. This year, I decided to write to my children about Thomas, who became famous for doubting the resurrection of Jesus. 

Please feel free to copy this letter and share it with your sponsored children!





Happy Easter!

By the time this letter reaches you, we will be preparing to celebrate Easter here in (Sponsor's Country), on (date). Today, I want to share one of my favorite stories about Easter with you.

Have you ever learned about Thomas in the Bible? Thomas was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, who followed Him and learned from Him for three years. Thomas actually had two names: one was Thomas, and he was also known as "Didymus" which means "twin". The Bible doesn't tell us the name of Thomas's twin sibling or whether it was a boy or a girl, but we do know that he had one! Thomas also has another, more famous nickname that you may have heard before - he is often called "Doubting Thomas". Do you have a nickname? How did you get it?

After Jesus died on the cross, He rose from the dead three days later. A little while after that, He appeared to a group of his disciples and they were so glad and excited to see Him! Thomas, however, wasn't with the rest of the disciples that day. Maybe he was spending time with his family, or maybe he had some work to do. When he returned, he was greeted with noise, shouts, dancing and singing from the rest of the disciples. "Jesus is alive! We have seen Him with our own eyes!" 

Now, you must remember that Thomas loved Jesus very much, and was so sad when He was put to death on the cross. So at first, the news that Jesus was alive was a big surprise. It seemed almost too good to be true! In fact, Thomas couldn't believe it at first. He told the other disciples, "Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand on the wound in his side, I will not believe!" Thomas wasn't the type of person to believe everything that people said; he wanted to see actual proof! And the best thing about this story is, Jesus wasn't angry at Thomas for doubting Him! Jesus appeared again to the disciples, and Thomas too. He showed Thomas the marks in His hands, and told him he could touch the nail prints. As soon as Thomas saw for himself, he believed right away! Jesus told Thomas, "You believe because you have seen Me. Blessed are those who have not seen, but still believe." You can read the whole story of Thomas in John 20:19-29. Thomas later became a missionary, and he traveled to many different countries to tell them about Jesus. 

Jesus is happy when we believe in Him, even though we have never seen Him face to face. Jesus also knows that sometimes we have doubts and questions, and that's okay. If you have any questions about Jesus, you can always ask your pastor or a project worker. Or, you can write to me, and I will do my best to answer!

Happy Easter! I love you very much!

Your friend, (Sponsor's Name)


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