Nougat 15

Familiar with the saying, ‘offer a hand up, not a hand out’? What if we were to apply that in our encounters with others? Consider Today’s Holy Nougat

“As they approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the Temple gate, the one called the Beautiful Gate, so he could beg from the people going into the Temple. Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened.”

‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭3‬:‭2‬, ‭7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

He Helped Him Up

The man was deposited daily by the temple, like an investment, with the clear expectation of returns. Ironically, the purity laws didn’t accommodate such folks in the temple. But he could beg outside the gate.

He had become his disability.

I’m not sure that Peter was cashless. But he didn’t have money for the system that instrumentalised persons with disabilities and reduced them to beggars. He didn’t have money to de-conscientize the reality around him that kept the beggar bound and trafficked. He didn’t have money when what the man needed was so much more.

What he did have was empathy.

He saw the human that others despised. He saw the cry to be affirmed, recognised as a child of God. He saw a greater need that, by God’s grace, he could meet. Right there outside the temple, on the way to Worship.

He ensured the man knew that Peter saw him. He could have left it at the command, ‘in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk.’ In fact, like many others had done, he could have ignored him. The crippled man shouldn’t be at the temple begging. Peter could have common about the menace to society. But he didn’t.

He touched the man.

Affirmed his humanity. Offered him healing and hope in Jesus’ name.

What about us? Who do we see? Who is God inviting us to offer the gift of healing and hope today?

How shall we respond? By perpetuating oppressive systems, ignoring the person, or being the difference needed?

Let us also pray for peace in the Holy Land. The current situation affects us believers and the world on the whole. Let’s be watchful in this season, praying for peace, while remembering that warfare is a clear sign of the end at hand…

Lord, give us vision, wisdom and compassion in this season. Be with the injured, hurting, hungry and forlorn. Heal broken bodies, minds, and spirits for Your glory’s sake. Help us to see others asthey need to be seen. Grant us compassion and healing we pray dear Lord. May it be so in Jesus’ name

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May all we seek be found in Christ