room to process

21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” John 20:21 HCSB
https://bible.com/bible/72/jhn.20.21.HCSB

The disciples are in trauma, they saw Jesus crucified, they put Him in a tomb, He disappears and now here He is, after walking through a wall telling them, "Peace to you (Don't be afraid) I am sending you!" After this Jesus breathed on them and said, " Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins or any they are retained."

How did that go down? I can hear them crying out, "slow down! Can we just talk about what has just happened?"

In time the disciples would come to understand, however right now they needed to process having Jesus back again, the cross, the distress, the truth of it all. In Chapter 21 we hear Simon say, "I am going fishing!" He needed to go back to what he knew to process what he did not know.

Just as Jesus gave His disciples room, we can give ourselves and others room to process and not insist they behave 'normal', so we can cope. The Lord is still in charge. Amen!

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