Acts 3 CEB (Common English Bible)

I love this story. Here we have a very common thing both in ancient days and in modern days. Someone is standing to the side of the road may be holding a cardboard sign maybe not by asking for something. The person is sitting or standing where people walk by people or people drive-by. This person obviously is sitting because he can’t stand. He is sitting there asking if people will give him something. I am so struck by what Peter and Jon do. They stare at him. They look directly into his face. This should not be dismissed. It should also not be dismissed that they say to the man look at us. If Peter and John are staring at the man and the man is looking at them what we have going on here is something that is very rare For someone begging on the side of the road. We have a human interaction where people are looking on another that person on the side of the road is a human being really there is such a yearning to connect with other human beings. Peter and Jon wanted to connect with this man so bad of course this connection is often best. We often drive by even if we had the money or some green piece of paper with a dead present on it how rare it is to look at them in the face to talk with them to ask him what their name is maybe we should stop maybe we should go park walk back over and just have a conversation with them Wow. Anyway, just so happened that Peter did have something to give him. Healing. And it blows the crowd away, and they are really interested in hearing about Jesus at that point Peter talks again and the Holy Spirit empowers him to speak such words that people turn to Jesus