An urgent message arrives. The Apostle Peter is in a neighboring town, and Tabitha, another disciple, has died. Peter is needed right away. He departs immediately and is taken to a home filled with those lauding Tabitha’s good works and mourning her loss (see Acts 9:36–41). We have no biblical record of Peter joining in the mourning. Peter had seen Jesus alive after his crucifixion. So while the others in that room believed that Tabitha was dead, Peter understood the situation differently. He accepted, to some degree, that God’s view, which Jesus had shown him, was the reality, and a lifeless body was not.
At this point, Peter had a choice. Was he going to go along with the picture before his eyes? Or was he going to gain the spiritual view of the scene? He was probably already seeing or accepting Tabitha as God saw her—as an expression of divine Life, who had never been at the mercy of mortality. Peter asked the mourners to leave. He knelt beside the body to pray and said: “Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up” (Acts 9:40).
Peter did not let an earthly spectacle dictate what was true. He went higher, to the spiritual perspective. He accepted the spiritual view as being the reality at that moment, and the result was healing—Tabitha was brought back to life! Peter helped her up and called to the friends and presented her alive.
