Dorcas was not a woman of means or position or power. She was not educated nor was someone who was well connected in the conventional sense. Dorcas was as plain as white rice and as common as Smith or Jones in an American phone book.
She was not someone you would have expected to have been known beyond her own family and neighborhood. And yet, here I am writing about her 2,000 years later in a country of which she never dreamed. Billions of people have heard her name and listened to her story for two millenia. Why is this widow of no means or position or education, who never wrote anything to be recorded, still being talked about?
The answer to that question is found by listening to the conversation held the first time she died. That's right, the first time. Peter raised her from the dead in response to the pain and grief of her community brought on by her death.
But it wasn't the Lazurus quality of her death but the Jesus quality of her life that kept her story alive for century after century. When she died, "All the widows stood around [Peter], crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them" (Acts 9:38). That's it? That's it!
Dorcas gave to those who had nothing from the little bit she could offer. She sewed, not for a profession or personal gain but for the benefit of those who had nothing to bring to the table but their need and nothing to offer except a grateful heart.
Because she did what she could and gave her all for the benefit of others, she was sorely missed and openly mourned. And you know what? Even if her name had never been spoken of again by the lips of mankind, she would still have been famous in her Father's eyes. Jus' Sayn.
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