During Eastertide I always try to imagine myself into the world of the Early Church with all its enthusiasm and vigour. It doesn’t take long before I meet stories that involve some form of dispute:
It is obvious to everybody in Jerusalem that a MIRACLE has been worked through them in public, and we cannot deny it.
In these verses we are confronted with the reality that the disciples were very ordinary men, not part of the establishment and without any pedigree or lineage of learning. In this moment, the healed man, is standing beside Peter and John as a living testimony of their power. No theological debate or political pressure could change what people had seen with their own eyes. He was healed. And that healing didn’t just restore a body, it disrupted an entire thought world.
In our daily lives we are unlikely to encounter the miraculous as we find it in these stories. The power and work of God comes to us in altogether more subtle ways. These stories challenge me to open to the small ways in which God can make a change in my life. It’s easy for things to go unnoticed.
How can you be more open this Eastertide to God’s power to change and heal?
(Acts 4:13-21, Saturday, Easter Octave)