On our last day in country, we got to see Lisbon. It is a beautiful city and full of culture, diverse people and thick Catholicism. I really wanted to see the main Cathedral in the city before we left. As we rounded the corner to the entrance, the first thing my eyes saw was an elderly woman sitting down on the steps. She was obviously crippled, as her feet were folded under her long black crinkled skirt, and there was a crutch next to her. She was holding a cup for people to put money in, and she kept saying to everyone that passed by "you are beautiful. you are beautiful." It seemed that was the only English she knew, or the only thing she could muster up to say from where she was folded down.
We walked right past her too.
As I was walking through the Cathedral, seeing the ornate gold decorations from one end to the other, my heart kept drawing back to this lady. I sat down on a pew in the back of the hall and looked straight ahead to the front, seeing every detail of this massive church. The Lord so sweetly whispered to me, "All of this is beautiful, but she is more beautiful to me than any of this. I am more enthralled with her than this place."
I couldn't walk past her on the way out.
The Lord gave to me His sweet words to speak over her from Acts 3, and I knew we had to share them with her. I was not suprised that He wanted us to read these words over her, as the only words she knew to say were "you are beautiful", and that was the very name of the gate where Peter and John met their friend! How BEAUTIFUL that was!
"One day at three o’clock in the afternoon, Peter and John were on their way into the Temple for prayer meeting. At the same time there was a man crippled from birth being carried up. Every day he was set down at the Temple gate, the one named Beautiful, to beg from those going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the Temple, he asked for a handout. Peter, with John at his side, looked him straight in the eye and said, “Look here.” He looked up, expecting to get something from them. Peter said, “I don’t have a nickel to my name, but what I do have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!” He grabbed him by the right hand and pulled him up. In an instant his feet and ankles became firm. He jumped to his feet and walked. The man went into the Temple with them, walking back and forth, dancing and praising God. Everybody there saw him walking around and praising God. They recognized him as the one who sat begging at the Temple’s Gate Beautiful and rubbed their eyes, astonished, scarcely believing what they were seeing. The man threw his arms around Peter and John, ecstatic. All the people ran up to where they were at Solomon’s Porch to see it for themselves."
I called my friends that were with me together and shared with them what the Lord was saying. We sat there in that place together and prayed and then got up, walked outside to her, sat down on the steps with her and loved on her.
She was able to share with us that her name was Maria, because she did speak a little Spanish. She smiled the biggest smile I had seen all week in this country, with missing and rotted out teeth that made my heart so full!
As we spoke the very words over her that Peter spoke, we were believing that she would get up and walk! I've learned to always be expectant of a miracle. Even though she didn't, we were so full of love in that moment, knowing that the Lord let us be a part of Maria's little world that day. We all walked away from this beautiful lady knowing that the Lord was healing the inside of her. Letting her know she was valuable, loved, worth more than begging on steps, and she was beautiful in His eyes.
And then, there is always the miracle the Lord does inside of us when we are part of what He is doing......
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