Dorcas, A Woman Full of Good Works

       Benevolent, compassionate, and devout woman that she was, Dorcas gave so generously of herself to others that her name today, almost 2,000 years later, is synonymous with acts of charity.
       More than any Bible woman of the early Christian period, she gave new meaning to the wise counsel of Lemuers mother, who in speaking in praise of the worthy woman said in part, '"She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy'' (Prov. 31:13, 20).
       The motivating principle of Dorcas life is given in six words, ''full of good works and alms deeds'' (Acts 9:36). With her sewing needle as her tool and her home as her workshop, she established a service that has reached to the far corners of the earth. We can infer that Dorcas was a woman of affluence. She could have given of her coins only, but she chose to give of herself also.
       She lived thirty-four miles northwest of Jerusalem at the port of Joppa, an important Christian center during the years when the new faith was spreading from Jerusalem across the Mediterranean. The picturesque harbor was situated halfway between Mount Carmel and Gaza at the southern end of the fertile plain of Sharon. We can easily visualize her home. In all likelihood it was a mud-brick structure on a "whaleback'' ridge above the sandy beach. Let us suppose the house had a large roof guest chamber, reached by an outer stairway. From the roof outside this guest chamber Dorcas could observe Joppa's needy people as they wandered up and down the beach searching for rags swept in by the waters of the sea. To these poor people, without sufficient clothing, good rags washed up on the shore must have been like gold nuggets.
       It is easy to suppose that as Dorcas looked from her upper room down upon the shore and watched these destitute people she became stirred with the desire to help them. Out of this first work of hers grew the Dorcas Sewing Societies, now world-wide.
       Though the Bible does not record exact details, we can be sure that Dorcas, with her nimble fingers, stitched layettes for babies, made cloaks, robes, sandals, and other wearing apparel for poverty-stricken widows, the sick and the aged. Many of those in need were downcast because they had to wear ill-fitting rags, but once clothed in the well-fitted garments she made for them they went away renewed in spirit.
       Needs of the people of Joppa must have seemed perpetual, for in this seaport were many families who depended upon the sea for their living. In wooden boats the men would set forth on the Mediterranean, then called "The Great Sea'' and often their boats would be torn to bits when they hit treacherous rocks or were buffeted by the winter storms of the Mediterranean. History records that the bodies of early seamen were often swept into the churning waters and then sometimes back onto the shores at Joppa.
       Dorcas had great compassion for the widows and the fatherless, and people loved her because of her magnificent qualities of mind and heart. Her life suggests Paul's message to Timothy, in which he said that women should adorn themselves in "modest apparel, with shame-facedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works'' (I Tim. 2:9-10) .
       Doubtless the people she helped pondered on what would happen to them if she should die. One day, as the people had feared, Dorcas, amid her labors, was seized with illness. Death came suddenly.
       Saints in the Church and widows she had befriended made their way to her house, washed her and laid her in the upper room, probably the room where she had made garments for them. After they had given the ceremonial ablutions to their benefactress, they stood about her bier, weeping and planning her burial.
       In this age when Peter and other apostles were performing miracles, there were a few who had faith that Dorcas could be raised from the dead. About ten miles from Joppa in the fertile Plain of Sharon was Lydda, where Peter had gone to preach. The disciples sent two men to Peter to ask if he would come to them without delay. The salty, fighting hands of Peter had become the healing hands of a saint, and they believed that he could raise Dorcas from the dead.
       He knew perhaps of the good works of this woman of the Christian faith, and he left his preaching at Lydda and hastened on foot to Joppa and to the upper room of Dorcas, where she lay dead. Like Elisha, when he had healed the child of the Shunammite woman, Peter refused to recognize that Dorcas was ready for burial, even though the people stood around her dead body weeping.
       Dismissing the weepers, Peter knelt down and prayed over Dorcas. No conflicting doubts or fears disturbed him. In his own mind Peter must have seen Dorcas as well and whole again. Praying fervently, he laid his big hands on the head of the woman. In a positive tone of voice, using the Aramaic form of her name, he said to her, "Tabitha, arise‚'' (Acts 9:40).
       After Peter had spoken thus, the Bible says in dramatic but simple words, "And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up'' (Acts 9:40). Then he called the saints and widows and presented Dorcas to them.
       We can be sure that the shouts of gratitude to God when Peter "presented her alive'' were louder than had been the wails at her death. The people whom Dorcas had befriended sensed a new joy, such as only those who see the dead restored to life can experience. For the woman who had lifted up so many in body and spirit had now been lifted up herself.
       Nothing is recorded of Dorcas after her healing, but in all probability her service increased. And those who had witnessed her healing now believed more strongly in God, for they believed that the same God who could lift Dorcas from the dead could also lift them from poverty and squalor.