Note: On Tuesdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
It’s so much easier for us to understand and accept the gifts we receive from the Lord when they are accompanied by outward signs, such as oil and water and rings and the hugs and kisses from family, friends, and other well wishers. 
Prayer cards, phone calls, rides to the doctor, casseroles, and other signs of support also show us Christ working through others in times of great sorrow, joy or uncertainty.
But what is Spirit thing? Is it any wonder in today’s Gospel from John 3 that Nicodemus, a learned man, a Pharisee, finds it difficult to comprehend what being born of the Spirit means, even though he says he accepts Jesus is a God-sent teacher? But accepting someone as a teacher is one thing; believing that person is the Messiah, quite another. “If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” Jesus asks him.
Nicodemus did not have the benefit at this point of having seen or having heard of the risen Christ, as the apostles did in today’s first reading from Acts 4, where we are told that “with great power (they) bore witness.” He did not have the benefit at this point of having experienced or having heard of the Holy Spirit coming to dwell within Jesus’s followers. We are blessed with the knowledge of both these amazing signs of the Lord’s love for us. Now, what will we do to share it?
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