Joy, Mistakes, and the Door We Forgot to Open

(Letter for July 2025)
Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!” - Acts 12:13–14
     This reflection was supposed to go out as part of our daily morning series. I had it all written, set aside to upload later—and then, like Rhoda in Acts 12, I got distracted. The result? A joyful moment left standing at the door a little longer than planned. Maybe that’s fitting, because this story is all about how joy, mistakes, and a little humor can still be part of God’s unfolding story.
     In Acts 12, Peter has just been miraculously freed from prison. The early church is gathered in John-Mark's mother's home, praying fervently for Peter's safety. As Peter knocks at the outer gate, a servant named Rhoda comes to the door, inquires who is there, and in her excitement of hearing Peter's voice, forgets the most obvious next step—actually letting him in. She runs back to the others and announces, “Peter is at the door!” Meanwhile, the poor apostle is still standing outside in the dark, fresh from a jailbreak, waiting to be let in off the street.
     This moment, brief as it is, has been remembered for two thousand years. It’s one of those wonderfully human scenes that reminds us the Bible isn’t just full of lofty theology—it’s also full of people. People who get excited. People who make small mistakes. People who laugh, sometimes in disbelief, at how quickly and surprisingly God answers prayer.
It’s not hard to imagine the early church telling this story with a chuckle: “Remember how Rhoda got so excited she forgot to open the door?” And there’s something profound about the fact that Luke, the careful historian and doctor, includes it in the book of Acts. It didn’t have to be there. But he tells it, maybe because we all need to remember that joy sometimes looks like running in the wrong direction. That even faithful people forget the obvious when grace shows up.
     There’s encouragement here for all of us. Because if we’re honest, we’ve all had Rhoda moments—times when we were so caught up in joy or surprise or even busyness that we forgot to follow through. We’ve left someone waiting at the door. We’ve started celebrating before the miracle was finished. We’ve made a small misstep that ended up being part of a much bigger story.
     And the good news? God doesn’t discard us for that. In fact, sometimes He uses those moments to remind us that His work doesn’t depend on our perfection. It depends on His power—and our willingness to respond, even if we respond imperfectly.
     So here’s your slightly late reflection, complete with a laugh, a little grace, and a reminder: joy is sometimes messy. Mistakes can be funny. And even when we forget to open the door, God is still in the business of showing up.

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