As Christians we can fall prey to anti-intellectualism or rigid thinking. We might have been told “don’t think, just believe”, or we might have been told what we’re supposed to believe doctrinally but not how to hold those beliefs so that they lead to encounter; both types of thinking keep us on the surface of life, only reaching for what we already know.
At the empty tomb, John bends over as a sign of humility to see the strips of linen lying on the deathbed without a body to accompany them. Contemplative thinking enables us to to lean in and listen for resurrection possibility beyond our assumption about how life is “supposed” to work. The word contemplation derives from con- meaning “with, together”, and the root temple, which means “a space demarcated for sacred consecration”. To contemplate is to establish a sacred space in the mind to be joined with God, which is the goal of the spiritual life.