Threads from the past always weave a fascinating albeit sometimes tangled tapestry with modern Israel. But this year, a Christmas celebration in Jaffa will braid together the past and present together into humble but shining example of true goodwill on earth. And if one of Jaffa’s most famous residents of yore — Dorcas — were still living, she would certainly approve.

Ancient Jaffa (also called Joppa) lays cheek-to-jowl with modern Tel Aviv, and in large part, has been replaced by Tel Aviv in commercial importance. But long ago, Jaffa’s ancient, natural harbor was the shipping hub and figured prominently in many Bible stories. It was from Jaffa that the reluctant prophet Jonah determinedly sailed away from his preaching assignment in Nineveh. It was in Jaffa that a hungry Simon Peter was offered an amazing banquet of “unclean animals” while awaiting a call to dinner at the house of Simon the tanner. At that same time and place, he received the shattering revelation that God was calling Gentiles to faith in Jesus Christ, not just Jews.

It was also in Jaffa where a woman — Dorcas — built a church with a needle. That church still thrives, and amazingly, so does the giving spirit of Dorcas.

Anywhere men go down to the sea in boats to seek their fortune, along with the tang of salt in the air, there are widows and orphans, the human wreckage washed up by ill tides. Ancient Jaffa had its share of human flotsam. While the poverty-stricken may not be the target demographic of some church planners, these were Dorcas’ people. So she clothed them. (Acts 9)

Then Dorcas fell ill and died of some unnamed malady, leaving the poor in a state of helpless grief. They sent for Peter, perhaps to speak the eulogy, perhaps hopeful that Peter could do something like he had for a local paralytic who had been healed. (Also mentioned in Acts 9.) Peter prayed and God restored Dorcas to life and to her work with the poor. In the early church, it is certain there were many leaders who fell ill and died, but only this woman who engaged in a humble ministry to the less fortunate was important enough for God to bring back from the dead so her work could continue — a poignant lesson to us all.