Get up and make your bed

It is perhaps the mundane request in the Bible: something said by millions and millions of parents every morning.

Get up and make your bed.

But the context of this most mundane of requests in today’s first reading (Acts 9:31-42) is extraordinary.

There he found a man named Aeneas,
who had been confined to bed for eight years,
for he was paralyzed.

Peter said to him,
“Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.
Get up and make your bed.”

He got up at once.

You and I may not experience such a spectacular miracle any time soon (or perhaps we may), but by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, even the most mundane things in everyday life can become extraordinary.

We can begin by remembering this every morning when we first open our eyes and by right then and there asking the Lord to make our day an extraordinary occasion of grace for ourselves and all those we meet.

And having prayed thus, we can get up at once, make our beds, and go forth in the Lord.