…but what I do have I give you.  Acts 3:6

There are several special  accounts in the Bible to which I’m drawn over and over.  At different times and in different seasons, the Holy Spirit has a way of unraveling yet another layer of the Scriptures. I sometimes half jokingly think of Him as the Great Onion Peeler, privately of course. Not so jokingly, when He does that, more often than not  tears do flow.

The story of the healing of the lame beggar by Peter and John at the Gate Beautiful  is one of these stories. I think of the lame man  being carried daily  to his spot at the gate to the temple. He knows the routine, where to set up  his ragged mat and how to badger the throngs going into the temple to pray. He has his begging bowl ready. Maybe this day he’d receive enough alms to survive – to come back tomorrow. Then Peter and John walk by and suddenly everything changes. Instead of receiving a pittance for tomorrow, the man receives new life.  He is healed in body, mind and spirit.

It is such a perfect, joyous miracle! Instant transformation! Dancing and leaping instead of groveling on the ground.  Instead of a worn alms cup rattling with a few coins, his heart overflows with praise for God. The Word says he walked into the temple with Peter and John. Forty years old, he probably enters the temple for the first time in his life. He no longer has to be carried by his friends to the same old dusty spot and dreary existence.

Yesterday our pastor used this text to teach about the Holy Spirit’s empowerment. I  heard with my ears and listened with my mind. “Yes and yes, “ I thought. “I love this story about….and isn’t it a good message for…and that’s great teaching  and insight.” But then it became personal,  without my permission even! It spoke to painful family difficulties with one of our daughters and my own heart. 

Why does God put  persons in  our lives who constantly need help, who can’t seem to get up and walk on their own, never mind leap and dance?  I do not know the answer. They’re ok for a while and then something else happens to derail them. They need help and they need the help NOW.  Sound familiar? Too painfully familiar?  I’m very aware of natural  consequences and  unhealthy enabling and not doing for someone else what they can do for themselves. This is about God’s Word saying, “Listen up. There’s more going on. Apply My Word to yourself first.”

In the text, the lame man was carried by others right back to the same spot he’d always been carried to most of his life. The only thing he expected was more of the same: either being ignored or getting a few coins. But Peter fixed his eyes on the beggar and made eye contact.

Look at us. So he gave  them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Acts 3.

Before Peter offered the lame beggar the immaterial riches of Jesus, His love, compassion, forgiveness, patience and  hope, he looked at him. That is, Peter saw the man as a person, not just as another one of thousands of beggars. Peter and John discerned what the man really needed – his broken condition. The healing was manifested by Peter’s total act of faith and he who was once a beggar received far more than the bare alms he held a bowl for.   

Our family member  is like the lame man in the story, expecting  some quick fix alms to survive because that’s all she’s asked for and received.  Communication is a routine that’s broken, lifeless  and useless.  Too often, I don’t want to pick up the phone to listen to the latest drama, let alone fix my heart’s eyes on her. 

The world’s silver and gold are not the answer. The answer is always Jesus. What I cannot, He can. What is lacking in my heart, He overflows. What I can’t see, His eyes always hold fast.  What seems impossibly broken, He will heal and restore. When faith falters and I’ve no idea what to do next, the Comforter promises to  guide and empower. And comfort.

Who needs silver and gold any way? By faith in God’s Word, I believe there are leaping and dancing miracles waiting  at the Gate Beautiful  of the Holy Spirit.