Joan, well into her 90s, never missed church unless she absolutely had to. When she moved into a care home, that became her church in a very special way. She still kept up with the joys and sorrows of her church family through frequent visitors. But it was soon apparent how much she cared and prayed for other residents and staff. She was a signpost to salvation to everyone she met. Even at her funeral the witness continued.

Christians like Joan are gold! Anna is another lovely example of such a signpost. We learn enough about her to be able to see her as a real person with her own story. But we are then filled with awe because that becomes part of something so much bigger. People like Joan and Anna are vital to people’s lives in their own time and into the future, signposts to God. Like Simeon, Anna straight away recognises Jesus and all he will come to mean (v 38). And she does not hesitate to share the good news. Mary, Joseph and Jesus can go home safe in the knowledge that they have been well blessed. 

‘Strikes for us now the hour of grace, / Saviour since thou art born.’¹  

The Bible has many walk-on parts of great significance, Simeon and Anna among them. Anna has probably been a widow for around 60 years, in a world where widows had very little support. Her situation has allowed her to focus on her relationship with God: the hours of prayer and fasting, the time spent with God, have borne fruit. Like Simeon, she is waiting expectantly for the ‘redemption of Jerusalem’ (v 38), which stands for the nation as a whole and perhaps for a wider humanity. There were others with a similar hope and it is to them that she speaks of what she sees God doing. Waiting, although frustrating, brings potential for growth; much of our Christian lives will be spent longing for God and the longing will bring us closer. It is a frequent theme in the psalms.²

We leave the birth narratives with Joseph, Mary and Jesus returning to Galilee. Jesus grows like any other child – physically, intellectually and, with the grace of God on him, spiritually. We cannot know when or how the awareness of his mission became clear – certainly by the age of twelve or thirteen when he is in the Temple debating theology there is a sense that he has a special task to fulfil for God, to whom he is related in a unique way (‘be about my Father’s business’, v 49, footnote). Luke has set the scene for the rest of his Gospel. Jesus has come at God’s initiative, ‘conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary’³ and has been welcomed into the world as God’s solution to the plight of humanity. We live today in the light of who Jesus is and what he came to do. He is our consolation, he is our redemption, he is our Saviour. And that is worth celebrating and telling.

As we move away from Christmas and prepare to enter another year, what have you learnt that you could take into the new year? Pray that Jesus will accompany you.

¹ Joseph Mohr, 1792–1848, based on a translation by Stopford A Brooke, 1832–1916, ‘Still the night, holy the night’  ² Eg Pss 27:14; 130:5,6  ³ The Apostles’ Creed