And a man crippled from birth was carried and placed at the gate of the
temple called “the Beautiful Gate” every day.
—ACTS 3:2

I heard about a book by Katherine Boo called Behind the Beautiful Forevers, about a slum in Mumbai. The title comes from a giant billboard that marks the edge of the makeshift settlement. In sunshine yellow, the sign advertises ceramic tiles by repeating the words “Beautiful” and “Forever.” Today’s reading has a similar irony. The lame and deformed and hungry gather under “the Beautiful Gate.” But it’s only ironic to those who can’t see beyond what people look like on the surface. Peter walked right up to the crippled man and “looked intently at him” and saw the man’s “jumping and praising” spirit. So he “took him by the right hand and raised him up.” The man stood and walked around and everyone else could finally see what the gate had already proclaimed.
Acts 3:1–10
Psalm 105:1–2,3–4,6–7,8–9
Luke 24:13–35

I think we can all learn something from looking beyond the surface and try to see ‘the contents page’ instead of simply looking at ‘the title page’…

Mrs Bolland 😀