You Make Beautiful Things

Acts 9:36-43

36 Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. 37 At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, "Please come to us without delay." 39 So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. 40 Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, "Tabitha, get up." Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. 41 He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. 42 This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43 Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.

I am a flawed human being.

I am afraid of my own oven. My shoelaces never really stay tied. And the word “organization” makes the hairs on my arm stand up.

But God still works with me.

I am not particularly the best writer. I can’t pronounce big words. And I just learned how to “select all” using the computer keyboard.

But God still works with me.

Our God is big enough to takes us and all of our flaws. As a matter of fact, God wants us and all of our flaws.

Last week, where did we find Peter? Peter was on the boat doing a really bad job at catching fish — the job he was raised to do! And where do we find Peter this week? He is raising a person from the dead!

The same Peter who Jesus found by the water. The Peter who rebuked Jesus. The same Peter who fell in the water trying to be like Jesus. The Peter who went all Game of Thrones and cut off the soldier’s ear. The same Peter who then couldn’t catch a single fish, is now raising people from the dead.

That’s the biggest plot twist since we found out about Luke Skywalker’s dad.

If you were to ask me to choose someone to be the person whom Jesus would build his church on, I definitely would not pick the fisherman that can’t fish. I would pick Captain America.

Maybe it’s a good thing we don’t get to do the picking.

It is fascinating to me that Peter can go through all of that and come out on the other side ready to change the world. But, I am reminded of a God who never gives up on God’s people. That even when Peter was at his lowest low, even when it seemed like Peter was making mistake after mistake, God was still there.

I know that in the midst of all my flaws, God can still use me. Even when I feel like I am at my worst, God still thinks I am beautiful.

Throughout the Bible are stories of God using the most unlikely people to do the most amazing things.

Maybe you think that you aren’t good enough. Maybe you think you don’t have what it takes. Maybe you aren’t super proud of your flaws.

But I am aware of a God who took a failed fisherman and used him to perform miracles.

I am aware of a God who raised Jesus from the dead.

And I am aware of a God who takes us as we are and does amazing things, a God who sees the beauty in us even when we can’t see it ourselves, a God who, when we are down and it feels like a death, lifts us up to heights we couldn’t even imagine on our own.

A God who loves us — especially our flaws!