The Seamtress Peter Raised

Acts 9:39-41

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. But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive.

N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone (Part One)

[T]he group Peter visited in Joppa was basically a group of widows (verses 39, 41). . . . There is something poignant about this group, who by definition were all carrying one of life’s largest forms of grief, becoming recognized and acknowledged as having not merely a claim on the general resources, but a significant contribution to make. Do not belittle the ministry of stitching, sewing, knitting and generally providing for needs of the larger community . . . . And do not forget to celebrate . . . the fact that the apparently ordinary people are not ordinary to God, and that when we tell the story of the great sweep of God’s purpose in history there are, at every point, the Aeneases and Dorcases who smile out of the page at us, like the robin in the garden, and remind us what it’s really all about (155).