Daily Lesson for August 26, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 9 verse 39:

39 So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them.

A woman had died. Her name was dorcas, which means gazelle. She was a woman known throughout the village for her great compassion and care. She had spent her days using her sewing talents to make tunics and other items of clothing for the poor in the village. Who knows where she herself got the money for the materials, but somehow she always made ends meet. And who knows how many she clothed, but she was always ready to dress the next child or adult who showed up naked on her doorstep. When she passed away, the Apostle Peter was taken to the upper room which was full of dresses and tunics ready to be given away when the next one came. She died in the upper room, surrounded by the works she had done for the poor. It was a beautiful thing to behold -- like a gazelle.

On Friday night our church hosted a fundraising banquet for the annual mission trip we take to Haiti in the fall. Helping to decorate the stage were a dozen or so vibrantly patterned dresses a group of women from our church have made which our group will take to the children of Haiti. All in all, this group of small group of women have dressed a thousand children in Haiti and other Central American and African countries.  A small group of women, meeting in the afternoons in a tiny little Sunday school room in our church, where they do their part to dress the world -- and they do it with joy.

The Bible says our deeds follow us. No doubt, when it is these women's time to go to their own Upper Room, they like Dorcas shall also find themselves surrounded by the works they have done. And that shall be a beautiful thing to behold also.