Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you, get up and make your bed.” And immediately he got up.
Acts 9:34
For a number of years I did not make up my bed as we often used two flat sheets rather than a fitted one and a flat one. I found it difficult to make the bed with the two flat sheets. I could easily make the bed with the fitted sheet and the flat sheet, making hospital corners I was taught to make up the bed as soon as I got up, which proved to be good insurance against crawling back into bed for some more Zzzzs. To this day it is a good habit to have.
Now Peter has been traveling among all the Christian believers and he arrives in Lydda. It is amongst the saints that he encounters a man named Aeneas who had been bedridden for eight years. He was paralyzed. For those years he had not been able to walk to the market, to the synagogue, to his place of work, to a friend’s house, or to any other place he would have liked to have gone on his own, without troubling family or friends to transport him.
He had not been able to get up and walk. He had not been able to attend to his own toileting and personal hygiene. He had not been able to make his bed and do other activities of daily living. Peter said to him, ’Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you, get up and make your bed.’ And immediately he got up. I would imagine he rolled up his bed in record time for he was now freed from his affliction of eight years. He was ready to walk and run, to leap and climb, to kneel and squat, and who knows perhaps if he were a young man, even to do jumping jacks and cartwheels. He regained the use of his legs and what a joy that must have been for him.
Prayer
O God, forgive us when we take our health for granted. Keep us mindful of those who cannot hear, who cannot see, who cannot smell, taste or feel and who cannot stand or walk. Help us to appreciate our health. These things we ask in the name of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.