A certain Pre-Schooler of my acquaintance found the experiment very much to his liking, I noticed.
It’s not every day that one gets to fashion clouds out of shaving cream, after all … or use food coloring to simulate rain – a mesmerizing shower of Purple Rain at that.
Cool! A chance to create some clouds!
And so, yes, you could say this otherwise ordinary day at Grandma’s Pre-School was a hit.
The “science” on offer was a little suspect, I guess: No actual atmospheric condensation was occurring in our little laboratory. But I’ll wager that Grandson #2 still will remember the lesson for a long time to come.
I’m told you can’t really do science without making a bit of a mess…
An eyewitness event is like that, isn’t it? When we see things with our own eyes, when we touch artifacts, smell particular aromas, involve multiple senses, the moment becomes deeply etched. It takes on a permanence, a reality that somehow transcends time and space.
This helps to explain, I think, some of the curious details we encounter in the Easter story we hear from St. Luke this week. The disciples are sifting through a sensory-packed story, we’re told – how certain of their companions had just met up with the Risen Lord who was made known to them “in the breaking of the bread.”
Then Jesus ups the sensory ante: He himself appears, and invites the terrified disciples to examine the wounds in his hands and feet. “Touch me and see,” he says. And so someone there must have done, because we’re still sharing the story more than two thousand years later.
As a result of this experience, they progress beyond fear – but not very far. Only to incredulity, mixed with a smidgen of joy. So Jesus gives them a bit more to chew on, taking a piece of baked fish and eating it in front of them.
One proof after another. Multiple senses engaged. You could say Jesus works remarkably hard to move the disciples beyond their disbelief, and to get them engaged in becoming his witnesses.
But even in the face of all those proofs, I might find the truth of the resurrection a little hard to believe if I myself hadn’t had an experience of the Risen Lord twenty-three years ago today. You can read my witness here.
Like a certain Pre-Schooler of my acquaintance, it’s a lesson I’ll likely remember for some time to come.
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 