Just a Story...

In my 26 almost 27 years of life I have heard the "Christmas Story" more times than I can count and it became just that... a STORY! Do you ever feel like that? Well, today I took some ME time and read through all of the accounts in the different gospels.  I saw this "story" in a whole new light... it was out of Luke 2:21-40 that I am seeing this differently. This is where Jesus is presented in the temple. We meet Simeon and Anna in these verses. God told Simeon that he would see the Christ child before he died. Simeon KNEW the Christ child just by looking at Him and when Simeon took Jesus into his arms he PRAISED GOD! Mary and Joseph were ASTONISHED at this!

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Back to today, if Mary and Joseph were surprised at someone else knowing their child was the Christ can you imagine how the others in the Temple felt. Would we know Christ if He was presented today in our churches? Seriously, think about it would we? Are we so in God's word that we would know? Do we walk with God so closely that He tells us these secrets?

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Back to the Bible we go! Anna is intorduced in verse 36. She was OLD! She had only been married for 7 years and was widowed for 84 years. She lived MOST of her life as a widow. She never left the temple... she fasted and prayed, fasted and prayed. She walked up to Mary and Joseph and told everyone around about the baby and how He was the redemption for all.
Okay, so, back to today! Anna was widowed for so long and instead of feeling sorry for herself and saying she couldn't do anything she went to the temple and fell at the feet of God EVERYDAY! She was priviledged to see Jesus! She thanked God FIRST and then spoke to the others around! When do we thank God first for things? Can you imagine going through your daily routine and something like this happen to you? God rewards us when we are faithful to Him... Anna and Simeon alike were faithful to God and were able to see Jesus. Are you as faithful as them or are you more like myself and make excuses about being too busy to just bask in the presence of God?