We Cannot Stop Talking About What We Saw

You know how it feels when something so good happens that you can't keep it inside? You have to tell someone. The words push and push until they spill right out of you.

That is exactly how Peter and John felt.

A man who had never walked in his whole life was up on his feet, leaping and praising God, right there in the temple. Peter and John hadn't done it. Jesus had. And they could not stop telling people about it.

But the powerful men did not like that. The priests and the temple guards came marching over, frowning. They grabbed Peter and John and shut them in jail for the night, just for talking about Jesus.

The next day they brought them out before the rulers. All the important people sat in a row, in their fine robes, looking down. It was the kind of room that could make anyone's knees shake.

Peter and John were not afraid.

These were two ordinary fishermen. They had no fancy schooling. They had spent their lives pulling nets, not standing in palaces. Yet Peter looked at all those rulers and spoke as bold as a lion. "It was Jesus," he said. "The Jesus you said no to. He is the one who made this man well."

The rulers stared. They could not work out where two plain fishermen had found so much courage.

And then they understood. These men had been with Jesus. Being near him had changed them all the way through.

Then Peter said something they never expected. He told them about a stone. Builders sometimes look at a stone and decide it is no good for their wall, so they toss it onto the rubbish heap.

"That stone," said Peter, "is Jesus. You threw him away. But God picked him up and made him the cornerstone, the most important stone of all, the one that holds the whole building together."

Isn't that just like God? The one the powerful people threw away, he lifted highest of all. The kingdom God is building is upside down from the one we expect, where the last become first and the stone nobody wanted holds up the house.

The rulers huddled together, whispering. They had no idea what to do. So they said, "Stop talking about Jesus. Not one more word."

But Peter and John shook their heads. "We cannot stop. We have to tell what we have seen and heard."

You cannot tuck away a love like that.

So the guards swung the doors open and let them go, and the two fishermen walked straight back to their friends, still talking as they came. The cornerstone was set, and God was gathering a family around it, one bold word at a time. Soon that family would grow so big that some of its people would need more hands to care for them.