“Tabitha, Get Up!”

“In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which is translated as Dorcas), who was always occupied with works of kindness and charity.” — Acts 9:36

Peter travelled around visiting the believers in different towns. In a town called Lydda, he met a man called Aeneas, who was paralysed and had been stuck in bed for eight years.

“Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you! Get up and roll up your mat.” And straight away Aeneas got up! Everyone who lived in that area saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

Not far away, by the sea, was a town called Joppa. In Joppa there lived a woman who followed Jesus. Her name was Tabitha, and in Greek her name was Dorcas. Both names mean “gazelle”.

Dorcas was always doing good and helping poor people. She especially loved to sew. She made coats and clothes for the widows in Joppa, women whose husbands had died and who had nobody to take care of them.

But one day, Dorcas became ill and died. Her friends washed her body and laid her in an upstairs room.

The believers in Joppa heard that Peter was in Lydda, nearby. So they sent two men to him. “Please come straight away!” they begged.

Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they took him upstairs to the room where Dorcas lay. All the widows stood around Peter, crying. And they showed him the coats and other clothes that Dorcas had made for them while she was alive.

Can you imagine them? “Look, she made me this coat!” “And she made this for me!” Dorcas had shown her love for Jesus by caring for them, stitch by stitch.

Peter sent them all out of the room. Then he knelt down and prayed.

Then he turned towards the body and said, “Tabitha, get up!”

And she opened her eyes! When she saw Peter, she sat up.

Do you remember what Jesus said to Jairus’s daughter? “Little girl, get up!” Peter had been in that room with Jesus. Now Jesus was working through Peter in the same way.

Peter took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called the believers and the widows, and showed them that she was alive!

The news spread all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.

Dorcas didn’t preach sermons or do great miracles. She sewed clothes for people who needed them. But her kindness was so precious that a whole town cried when she died. And when she came back to life, many people believed in Jesus.

You don’t have to do big, important things to serve Jesus. Small acts of kindness, done with love, matter to God.

Read it in your Bible: Acts 9:32–43

Dear God, thank you for people like Dorcas, who show your love through kindness. Help me to use what I’m good at to help other people. Amen.