31st Dec 2023 - Waiting for Jesus

One of the great privileges of going to church is to meet elderly saints, the kind who have walked with Jesus for so much of their life that it seems to shine through on their faces. This is how I picture Simeon and Anna, two devout prophets who yearned to see the coming of the Messiah. Anna is described as ‘very old’ at ‘eighty-four’, and she’d enjoyed only seven years of marriage before becoming a widow (vv36–37). She spent her years worshipping ‘night and day, fasting and praying’ (v37). God told Simeon he would see the Messiah in his lifetime (v26).