Painting Revelation Blog

The Beautiful Gate (Acts 3:1-10 and ff)

The disciples’ first miracle is the healing of the crippled man at the Beautiful Gate. The man had been lame since birth and his friends carried him to the temple gate every day so he could beg for money. After I painted this scene and stood back to look, I saw that the “circle” of Pentecost from the prior scene had opened up, so to speak, into this archway. Symbolically, when we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, our life opens up to others. As we venture out in the power of God into the world, we pass through the beautiful gate, from our boring, ineffectual world of self into the exciting life of God. God doesn’t give us silver and gold, as the crippled man requested, but instead, as we “fix our attention on him” he gives us what we really need, what we’ve been lacking since birth. They were able to stand up and walk—and leap and praise and give glory to God—as they journeyed on in his power and purpose.

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