“taken up dead” [Acts 20:9]

“taken up dead”. The unforeseen happens, our circumstances change, things are no longer the same and what we knew as something very much alive we take up as something dead. We begin a new project but it dies on us; nothing we can do will revive it – we take it up, but it’s dead. What was going so well we now have to say is as good as dead. This can be the experience of any one of us.
Was it negligence on Eutychus’ part that he was asleep and fell? Should those responsible for the seating have moved him away from the window? But what use an enquiry when we think he’s dead? Thank God the miracle of resuscitation took place as Paul embraced him. And in God’s providence what you think has died on you can come alive and you can start praising again today.