A pot of soup carried next door, a ride given when a car breaks down, a few dollars pressed into a hand that needed them. None of this will make the news, yet it is the kind of love that keeps a community alive. And there is not one of us who has nothing to give.
“Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.”
Acts 9:36, KJV
Tabitha had no title we would recognize. Scripture does not record a sermon she preached or a crowd she gathered. It tells us she was full of good works, and her hands stayed busy with mercy.
We are even told what that looked like. She made coats and garments for the widows of Joppa, and she did it while she was with them (Acts 9:39). Day after ordinary day, she clothed people who could never repay her, simply because they were near and they were in need.
Notice the word full. Her life was not sprinkled with the occasional kind gesture. It was full, the way a basket is full, packed with small mercies the world would never write down.
We are tempted to think real service has to be seen, that unless we stand on a platform or behind a pulpit, what we do barely counts. So the quiet, unnoticed kindness can feel too small to matter.
But heaven does not measure the way we do. The same God who sent an apostle to a seamstress’s bedside counts every coat, every cup of cold water, every unseen act of love.
Yet none of this was a religion of good works. Tabitha is the only woman the New Testament names as a disciple, a follower of Jesus. Her busy hands were not an attempt to buy God’s favor. They were the overflow of a heart that already belonged to Christ. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). The very next verse adds that we are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Ephesians 2:10). We do not serve in order to be saved. We serve because we have been saved.
Christ gave Himself for us first, while we had nothing to offer Him. Every coat Tabitha sewed was simply mercy passed on, the love she had received from her Lord placed into someone else’s hands. That is the only good work that lasts: not ours done for God, but His done through us.
And no one is left out of this. Whatever is in your hand is enough: a skill, an afternoon, a warm meal, a listening ear, a little money. God uses what we actually offer, not what we wish we had. The good is not far off or years away. It is the person beside you right now, the one who is cold, or hungry, or grieving and only needs someone to show up.
So do not wait to be important before you become useful, and do not give to be noticed or to earn what Christ has already freely given. While you are here, while you are with them, give what you have. That is what it looks like to follow Jesus.
Reflection Questions
- Am I trying to earn God’s approval by what I do, or giving out of the love Christ has already shown me?
Who is near me right now that I could love with something as simple as my own hands and my time?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, You loved me before I ever lifted a hand for You, and You gave Yourself for me when I had nothing to give in return. Let that love move through me now. Make my life full of good works, not to earn Your favor, but to pass on the mercy I have already received. Open my eyes to the person beside me, and give my hands something to do, for Your name’s sake. Amen.
Further Reading
Acts 9
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