Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Bag lady in the temple

Monday, December 30, 2002

Luke 2:36-40
36) There was also a prophetess,
Anna,
the daughter of Phanuel,
of the tribe of Asher.
She was very old;
she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,
37) and then was a widow until she was eighty-four.
She never left the temple
but worshipped night and day,
fasting and praying.
38) Coming up to them at that very moment,
she gave thanks to God
and spoke about the child
to all who were looking forward
to the redemption of Jerusalem.
39) When Joseph and Mary had done everything
required by the Law of the Lord,
they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth.
40) And the child grew and became strong;
he was filled with wisdom,
and the grace of God was upon him.

What did Anna look like? She was homeless, old, not very clean. She always wore the same clothes. She carried everything she owned.

She had lived in the world between heaven and earth for so many years, praying night and day, fasting most of the time, eating only when someone gave her food. She talked more to God than to anyone around her, she mumbled, she was hard to understand. Eyes closed or glazed, she looked out at things no one else saw.

Anna was widowed decades before. She was a young girl when her husband died, and she dedicated herself to God. She could not be a priest, but she could stay in the temple and pray. Coming there day after day for years, she became a fixture. Finally she stopped going home.

She and Simeon made quite a pair, not likely to be accepted as fixtures of the Washington Cathedral or Vatican, but tolerated and perhaps even welcomed at the temple of Jerusalem. In the midst of her muttering, her silences, her prayers, she knew Jesus immediately, that he was to be a savior, a redeemer for his people and her people.

I try to put together a list of "saviors" of our day ... John Kennedy, Bill Gates, Che Guevara, Michael Jordan, Billy Graham, Rev. Moon, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler ... Harry Potter, Frodo. How would I know Jesus, if he came today instead of 2000 years ago?

I think I'd better to get to know somebody like Anna. Or become like her myself.

Lord you don't put on any airs, do you? And neither do your prophets. Let me see through and past appearances, and seek your truth wherever you show me to look.

Devotions Archive

Bag lady in the temple

Monday, December 30, 2002