Focus

Experience silence in the midst of your busy day. Take some time to relax into a time to be with God.

Read

Acts 3:1-10 (NRSV)

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Reflect

The man whose friends carried him to the Beautiful Gate of the Temple every day so that he could beg had no idea that this day would be different from any other. His friends put him down on a little pallet and he resigned himself, as he always did, to sitting there till they returned for him that evening. Sometimes those coming through the doors of the Temple would be generous, but more often they would not. Most people looked past him as if he weren’t there. Even those who paused to drop a coin into his hand seemed to do so with an air of superiority. So, it was surprising when two Galileans stopped and looked at him intently. He paid them little mind at first, simply asking for alms. He expected them to walk on by and had already turned his attention to the next group. That’s when the bigger one said, “Look at us.”

Since people often looked past him, he had grown accustomed to looking past them, too. They were strangers, potential donors, nothing more. But these two men were different. Perhaps they would give him something special, though they didn’t have the appearance of wealth. But then the bigger one took him by the hand and said, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” That day, the gate was truly beautiful!

Pray

O God, let me see others with the eyes of faith and hope as the apostles did, in the name of Christ. Amen.

Go with God.