Dorcas: Full of Good Works
8 November 2025 · 1 min read · For Children
Dorcas — Tabitha in Aramaic — gets one of the New Testament's loveliest introductions: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did. Her ministry was a needle and thread; her congregation, the widows of Joppa.
Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.
The evidence in the room
When she died, the disciples sent for Peter. He arrived to a room of weeping widows, shewing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them. Her eulogy needed no words — it hung on their shoulders.
It is a searching picture: what would the room hold at your going? Dorcas' theology was stitched into hems. The faith that moves God is often the kind you can wear.
But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
The resurrection at Joppa
Peter put them all out, kneeled, and said, Tabitha, arise. She opened her eyes — one of Scripture's rare resurrections, granted not to a queen or prophetess but to a seamstress beloved by the poor. Many believed in the Lord because of it.
Heaven, evidently, takes hand-made kindness seriously. Dorcas teaches that no ministry is small when it clothes the cold — and that the Lord notices exactly who is full of good works.
