Perfect Timing 

“There is … a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build…”

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 3

In Acts chapter 3, we read the story of Peter and John visiting the temple and healing a paralyzed man who had been begging by the gate every day. For a long time, I wondered about that beggar. If he had been placed by the Temple Gate every day for years, surely Jesus walked by him dozens and dozens of times. And each time Jesus passed the gate, he must have heard the beggar’s cry. Why didn’t Jesus heal him?  

While Jesus never reached out his healing touch toward that poor beggar, he did have compassion for him. For Jesus did not pass him by. The forgiveness and the power Christ purchased on the cross was the very gift of forgiveness and power which Peter and John offered to the man. Jesus knew that one day, the paralyzed man would experience his healing and forgiveness… it was all a matter of his perfect timing. So, whenever Jesus passed by the beggar on his way to and from the temple, he looked ahead to the day when Peter and John would extend a hand to the man and then enter the temple together with him as they praised God for his healing. 

Jesus may seem slow in answering your prayers. It may seem as though he is passing you by, but he has not forgotten you. It’s all in his timing. And that’s something for which to give thanks! 

Lord, thank you that you have not passed me by. Thank you that you have given me grace upon grace through your work on the cross—grace that will more than suffice until the time of healing and laughing and dancing.