Dorcas knew the power of small deeds done with great love.
Dorcas–also known as Tabitha–is one of the lesser-known women of the Bible. Her story is told in only a few short verses in Acts, but the impact of her life?
That was enormous.
Here’s what the Bible tells us about Dorcas’s story:
In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”
Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.
Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. (Acts 9:36-42)
The one word that comes to mind when I think of Dorcas is compassion. She did good deeds. She helped the poor. And she made clothes for widows.
That last detail is the one that grabs my imagination. I can picture the room crowded with women as Peter walked in, each weeping as she held out the hem of a robe or a cloak to show him. The room was filled with women who were wearing Dorcas originals–clothes she had made for them with her own hands.
I’m not much of a seamstress, but my love of knitting gives me an appreciation for what it means to have something someone has made for you with her own hands. Its value is more than the utility of the object; it’s about the love and time woven into every stitch. Think about the time it must have taken for Dorcas to make that many garments. She didn’t have a sewing machine–not even the old-fashioned treadle kind like my grandmother used to have. Dorcas would have taken each stitch by hand, using precious daylight for her sewing or laboring by the flickering light of an oil lamp. Since most cloth in the Roman world was produced domestically, Dorcas may have woven the cloth for each garment as well. The wardrobe the widows displayed in that upstairs room represented months–maybe even years–of Dorcas’s labor.
The overflow of Dorcas’s compassion touched many lives, and they mourned her loss. Then God did a miracle. Peter sent the crowd of weeping women out of the room and knelt to pray. Then he turned toward her and said, “Tabitha, get up.”
Dorcas opened her eyes.
The New Testament only records a handful of people who were raised from the dead. Jesus raised Lazarus, Jairus’s daughter, and a widow’s son. Paul raised Eutychus from the dead. Peter raised Dorcas. She became one of the tiny group of people who experienced the truth that Jesus is the resurrection and the life on this side of eternity. As word of the miracle spread all over Joppa, many people believed in Jesus.
Small acts of great love have enormous power.Click To TweetSmall acts of great love have enormous power. Somehow I doubt that Dorcas thought of her gifts as anything significant or noteworthy. I’ve known women like her–women who cheerfully give and serve because it’s simply how they love. They knit blankets for premature babies and deliver casseroles to people who are sick. They write cards and call shut-ins. They teach children, wipe runny noses, and are always the first to volunteer and the last to leave. They serve in a thousand small ways without asking for recognition, and when you thank them they blink at you in surprise. “What? Oh, it’s nothing. I’m happy to do it.” And the remarkable thing is that they are. They do what they do because they are driven by love.
And yet it’s easy to get down on ourselves when we hunger for great impact but spend our days sorting laundry and sitting in the carpool line. We teach Sunday School and lead Bible study and leave work early so we can deliver cupcakes to the class party, and somehow we let ourselves start thinking that it doesn’t matter. We compare ourselves to the missionaries and the worship leaders and find ourselves coming up short, and we dream about the day when we’ll get to do something big for Jesus.
But maybe what Jesus wants isn’t big things. Maybe what he wants is small things done with great love. Because in his hands, those small acts of love may be all he needs to change the world. Let’s join with Dorcas and do the small things God has given us with his love.
Photo by Giulia Bertelli on Unsplash
2 comments
I think you’re right, the world is focused on great, big things. God focused on the things no one can see. It’s in the small things we show our true character.
God help me to be such a woman that others would cry out for me
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