and went into the temple with them,
walking and jumping and praising God.
When Ebenezer Scrooge woke on Christmas
morning after four successive nightmares, discovering that he was alive and
still had time to reform his miserable life, he went shopping.
When our beggar in Acts
3 was healed in the Name of Jesus, “He leaped up, stood, and walked
around, and went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising
God.”
The beggar’s
entering the Temple completes Jesus’ work. Scrooge’s purchase of a turkey for
the Cratchet family may indeed lead him back to God, but that remains to be
seen. Dickens was a marvelous novelist but not an evangelist; he wrote A
Christmas Carol to promote gift giving, not worship.
In this story we also see the Holy Spirit at work. First, it rushed upon Peter and John as they
commanded the beggar to “Look at us.” Did Peter know what he was going to do
next? Had he come out that afternoon to try his hand at faith healing?
Apparently not; the
impulses to command the beggar first to look at us and then to stand up came
upon him unexpectedly. Perhaps he saw the man, remembered Jesus under similar circumstances
and acted.
Suddenly the Spirit
rushed upon the beggar and he stood up – much to his own surprise – and began
first to walk and then to leap about.
The mission of the Holy
Spirit, among other things, is to heal. God’s healing doesn’t simply restore
one to a previous condition; it takes one further into life. This beggar along
with his friends and family was stronger, more agile and happier than he had
ever known. How could he keep from singing, leaping and dancing?
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.