The Sheet from Heaven

He had gone up to the roof to pray.

Around the sixth hour. Noon.

He was hungry. While food was being prepared, he fell into a trance.

The sky opened.

A great sheet descended, held by its four corners, let down to the earth.

In it were all kinds of animals. Four-footed beasts and creeping things and birds of the air.

Every kind. Including many that Jewish law called unclean.

A voice said: Rise, Peter. Kill and eat.

Peter said: Not so, Lord. I have never eaten anything common or unclean.

The voice said: What God has made clean, do not call common.

This happened three times.

Three times the sheet came down. Three times the command. Three times his refusal. Three times the correction.

Then the sheet was taken back up into the sky.

Peter sat there puzzled, wondering what the vision meant.

While he was still thinking about it, men arrived at the gate.

Sent by a Roman centurion named Cornelius. A Gentile.

Cornelius had been visited by an angel who told him to send for Peter.

Peter went with them.

He entered the house of a Gentile — something no observant Jew would do.

He told the gathered household: God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.

He hadn't understood the sheet was about people until the people showed up.

The vision on the rooftop was about animals.

The meaning waiting behind the door was about human beings.

Sometimes the vision is one thing and the revelation is something larger entirely.

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