Scripture: “A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’” — John 20:26-27
Reflection:
You received a Star Word at the start of a year full of unknowns and were invited to carry it as a lens for noticing what God might be doing. You did not choose your Star Word; it found you. In a culture that prizes personal curation — curated feeds, curated identities, curated spiritual experiences — the Star Word practice insists on something different. It insists that what we most need may not be what we would have reached for.
What Thomas needed, and what Jesus gave him, was not a better argument but a direct encounter. Jesus does not offer Thomas a revised theology of resurrection. He offers his wounds. He offers the physical reality of what he has endured. The invitation is embodied: put your finger here, reach out your hand. Your Star Word is not a concept. It is more like the nail-marked hands, a specific thing that asks for a specific response.
So, have you been living with your Star Word or protecting it? There is a difference. Living with a word means letting it surface in unexpected places, asking questions of you, and showing up in contexts you did not plan. Protecting a word means keeping it in the category where it first made sense, using it as private comfort. The disciples in this story encountered the risen Christ, and they shut the doors again. It is entirely possible to have an experience of the holy and then seal it away, to receive a word and keep it contained rather than letting it move through the rooms of your actual life. Where have you been keeping it sealed away rather than letting it move?
Application:
Place your Star Word somewhere you will encounter it physically today. On your bathroom mirror. On your steering wheel. On the handle of your coffee mug. Let the word find you in the unremarkable parts of your day, where it has to make sense in an everyday context.
Writing Prompt:
How has your relationship with your Star Word changed since January? Where has the word surprised you? Where have you been surprised by your resistance to it? What would it mean to stop protecting the word and start living it?
Prayer:
God, who gives us what we would not have chosen and comes when we have not yet unlocked the door, help us receive again what we have been carrying. Let our word do its work in us — not in the places we have reserved for it, but in the places we have not. Amen.