Jesus chose twelve disciples. After he returned to heaven, eleven of them and Judas' replacement Matthias preached the good news of Jesus. Strangely, however, the Holy Spirit did not see fit to tell us anything at all about what most of them did. We read a lot of stories about Peter, and a little bit about John and the death of John's brother James. Otherwise, the book of Acts tells us nothing about the other disciples.
That makes the story of Tabitha all the more remarkable. Here was a woman with the heart of a servant. We are not told that she was a mighty evangelist or even the wife of one. She was just a simple seamstress. She saw people in need and did what she could to help. In actual fact, Tabitha had a gift of the Holy Spirit, and she used it for God's glory.
God has a special place in his heart for the weaker elements of society. Again and again in the books of Moses the people are commanded to take care of those who had no status in society: widows, orphans, the poor, and foreigners. Tabitha was acting very much in accord with God's heart.
There is something in human nature that wants to focus on people who have a high profile. Even among believers we often give much more attention to those with titles, pastors, elders, evangelists, and others. The Tabithas in the church are all too often overlooked. What a statement it is, then, of how God sees things, that the first person God chose to raise from the dead after Jesus (and send back to the church for continued service) was not Stephen, the deacon and mighty orator, but Tabitha, the lady who made clothes for poor widows.
- 19 DECEMBER -