Nearest and Dearest (Advent: Day 9)

I had to laugh at the POTUS-elect the other day.  He visited Ohio and spoke to employees of the Carrier Company, the folks who make heat pumps, and such.  During the course of his speech he said something like, "I have a secret to share with you. Don't tell anybody now!  My new secretary of defense is going to be..."  What makes this laughable is that, of course, when you tell several hundred people a "secret", with press present, it's not going to remain a secret very long!  That's not the way most of us operate. If we have precious news to share, we share it with our "nearest and dearest" first.

We live on the side of history after the first advent (coming) of Jesus to Earth.  So, it is a bit of a stretch for Christians to know what it was like for the Jews to look for, long for, their Messiah, except as we Christians can do in regards to Jesus' second advent, still in the future.  (I wrote about this in my last post.)

Two of the most intriguing people in the Bible are found in Luke 2.  One of the best things about Luke was his attention to detail.  None of the other gospel writers could compare to him in that respect.  Both of these "minor" characters were fervently looking for Messiah as "the first Christmas" approached.

Our story begins in verse 22, when Mary and Joseph are found taking the baby Jesus to the Temple in order to fulfill the requirements of the Law for newborn boys.  There, they encounter Simeon (who will be the subject of a future post) and Anna, our heroine for today.

36There was also a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old, having been married to her husband for seven years until his death. 37She had lived as a widow since then for eighty-four years. She never left the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38At that moment, she came up to them and began to give thanks to God and to speak about the child to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

According to Luke 2:36-38, Anna lost her husband to death, after only 7 years of marriage. She never remarried.  Anna was OLD.  Most Jewish women marry in their mid-teens. Assuming she married at 15 and became a widow at 22, she would have been 106 years old at the time Jesus was brought to the Temple for the first time.  106!! That is "ancient", even by today's standards!  For whatever the reason, she lived in the Temple, most likely performing some sort of tasks assigned to older widows.1

Anna's close proximity to the Temple, however, is not what earned her the title of "prophetess".  (As I mentioned in yesterday's post, she is the only woman given that title in the New Testament.)  Being "in church" a lot is not what makes a person a Christian either...Verse 37 tells us that she spent much time in fasting and in prayer.  When a person spends that much time seeking God, communing with Him, they are more likely to receive revelations from Him.  That's not to say she EARNED the gift of prophecy, because it is a gift from God, given at His discretion.  But, she exercised her gift with tremendous zeal.

And, the "proof is in the pudding", as the saying goes.  Anna walked up and immediately recognized who Jesus was.  If we assumed that she knew Mary and Joseph we would very likely be drawing a false conclusion.  The Scriptures do not say she knew them, after all.  Whom she DID know was Jesus, even though she had never met him!  Her reaction to meeting Jesus "in the flesh" was to praise God aloud, to thank Him and to tell everyone around her about Him.

Do you "get" that Anna knew, even more surely than Mary and Joseph did, who Jesus truly was?

Don't you think that Anna must have been one of God's "nearest and dearest"?  Even though she is given a mere 3 verses in the Bible, what a wonderful testimony those verses contain!  In his classic commentary on the book of Luke, Alfred Plummer said that Anna was the first in a long line of prophetic disciples who would speak about Jesus to all who were fervently looking for the redemption of Israel.2

In Jesus, Anna glimpsed the future, a future as bright as the promises of God!

Sources:

1    http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/mary-simeon-or-anna-who-first-recognized-jesus-as-messiah/

2   Alfred Plummer, Luke, International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1905), p. 71.

Missing the Obvious

Last week I started the business of packing up the Christmas decorations, beginning with the house's main floor.  They get stashed away in the basement, which means numerous trips up and down the stairs.  It felt good to get most of that done.  A couple of nights ago, we had dinner guests, friends from church.  And, just now, while coming out of the guest bathroom, I spied the 24" wreath hanging on the inside door which leads down to the basement.  How in the world could I have missed that?!

Do you have a talent for missing the obvious?  I certainly do, not just with Christmas decor either.  In fact, Ms. ObLIVious could be my middle name....and it's frustrating.

21My son, do not lose sight of these—
keep sound wisdom and discretion,
22and they will be life for your soul
and adornment for your neck.

Proverbs 3:21-23 (ESV)

I just love when God lets me "see" or "hear" something from His word, from His people.  One instance of that happened yesterday at church.  Hubster and I ended up sitting near a visiting couple, and the reason we ended up there was soon readily apparent.  I'm so glad not to have missed that!

In the same vein, I hate missing things that I should have seen, realized or done.  Some of this predicament is due to a lack of discernment, the spiritual gift of wisdom...situations in which I've lost sight of "the main thing".  In particular, I wonder how I am coming across to other people.  How do they view me? Is the light of Christ shining forth through me?  Or, is my own obtuseness keeping that light tamped down?  Am I hindering the gospel?

It is a gift from God to be able to see yourself as others see you, I believe.  (The English poet, Robert Burns, agreed.)  Sometimes, the picture is not too pretty; or, that is often the case with me.  It's like when someone posts a picture of you on Facebook and you look like the Michelin baby: fat, fat, fat! You look at that photo and think, "Is that how people truly see me?"  As it goes in the physical, so it goes in the spiritual...except that the stakes in the spiritual realm are so much higher.  The unbelieving world is so very often "turned off" to Jesus by what they see in our lives.  If that's not a sobering thought, I don't know what is.

Father, we often think that our "light" is obvious to others, when the exact opposite is the case. Other times, we are fully conscious that we are not representing you well, and we just don't care.  Both of these are sins - - the first of "omission" and the second "commission".  Oh Lord!  Please open our eyes, so that we do not miss the obvious. Give us wisdom and discernment to "adorn our necks", so that others will see You and Your wisdom as gorgeous gems when they are around us.   In Jesus' name, amen.