Finding God in the every day

Week 5 day 4

Acts 3⁴ And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” ⁵ So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something

Learning to see

            In the time of the book of Acts this scene was quite a common sight. Begging, or alms seeking was a large part of a culture which routinely found the elderly, the infirmed and those without any family support taking up the practice as the only resort they had to survive. This bible passage brings to mind a flood of images and experiences from my time living in cities and traveling around the country. Often the folks we see panhandling at highway interchanges and on the streets are performing a kind of theater in which they play on the sympathy passersby. Some are legitimately in distress, many are not. To discern who is who is the challenge of the sympathetic person who is considering engaging the beggar.

            I will not regale you with horror stories of the many charlatans and thieves I have encountered, but I take heart whenever I read this passage. It was first a miracle of seeing. Peter saw the man, the man saw Peter. Then Peter, in the bloom of Pentecost demonstrates the kind of discernment I pray someday to learn. Seeing, not only an opportunity to model the compassion of the Lord Jesus, he was, I believe acutely aware of where he was and the effect this healing miracle would have among the fledgling Church, the skeptical Jews and the Romans who watched everything of note that happened in the Jewish colony. It was really a “God moment”.

            So, what’s question here? Is our gut instinct and skepticism enough to balance out the compassion we feel in our heart? I cannot answer that question for you. Jesus can and will answer by his Holy Spirit. (John 16:13However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.)  Pray, as the disciples did when Pentecostal power fell upon the assembled group that magnificent day.