The Tunics She Sewed
“In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!” Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.”
— Acts 9:36-39 (NIV)
Luke calls her mathetria, the feminine form of the word for a student of Jesus, and it appears nowhere else in the New Testament. Her Aramaic name stands first, translated at once, because this port town had both languages in daily use. Both versions mean one animal, a gazelle. Burial normally followed within hours in that climate, so preparing her and then stopping was a deliberate delay rather than the usual order. Lydda lay inland, hours of walking in each direction, twice over before help could arrive. Thread was spun by hand and cloth woven by hand, so one finished garment cost real money and real time. The Law even let a cloak stand as security for a loan, on condition it came back before sunset. A woman left without a husband or a grown son often lost any steady income. Small work done for other people outlasts whoever does it.
It is easy to think good only counts when it is big: a fundraiser, volunteering, some major help. Yet what lasts longest after people is what they made with their hands for one particular person: a sweater, a jar of soup, a button sewn back on, a lock that works again. An older neighbour has nobody to take up their trousers. Someone at work has carried a bag with a broken strap all week. Someone close to you eats anything at all because they have no strength to cook for one. What was left after that woman was not a speech but the coats the widows held up in their hands. Your hands can do something someone near you needs.
Make something with your hands
- 1Make or mend one thing today with your own hands for one particular person near you: sew on a button, take up a hem, fix a lock, cook a double portion and take a jar to a neighbour, bake something for someone who lives alone. Give it without an occasion and without explaining.
- 2If you have no materials and no kitchen today, do something with your hands that costs nothing: clean someone's shoes, tidy the shared stairwell or the dorm kitchen, or copy out a recipe or a kind word by hand and leave it for someone who needs it.
God, thank you for the people who quietly made things for me with their own hands. Show me someone today who needs something I know how to do. Let my hands work for someone else, not only for me. I do not need anyone to notice. Amen.
My hands make something today for one particular person, for no occasion.
Why is Tabitha called a disciple in a way no other woman is?
Luke uses mathetria, the feminine form of the word, and it appears nowhere else in the New Testament. It names her in her own right, not as somebody's wife or mother.
Why was she laid in an upstairs room instead of buried?
Burial normally followed within hours in that climate. Preparing her and then stopping was a deliberate pause while messengers went inland to Lydda and came back, hours of walking in each direction.
Why did homemade clothes count for so much?
Thread was spun by hand and cloth woven by hand, so one finished garment cost real money and real time. The Law even let a cloak stand as security for a loan, on condition it came back before sunset. For a woman with no steady income, clothing like that was not a small gift.