Advent|Dec.20th ~Celebrating our Rescuer's Coming!

Sarah & I would like to share with you one of our "first" traditions (if we can call it a tradition yet). We decided to get an Advent calendar for our Christmas season! 1. Because I don't remember the last time I ever went through an Advent calendar 2. Because it's cool and we live in Seattle 3. Because it's biblical (thought I should add this one). We are celebrating Advent, because the word means "coming," and reminds Sarah & I of the best "coming" there ever was! The arrival of our Rescuer, Jesus Christ!

Day 20! December 20th! Five more days till Christmas :-)

This was a special day for Sarah and I. We got to take a night off and have a little date in the middle of a busy week. We got to read the Advent, open a few early gifts and look ahead in excitement for our friends' wedding on Friday! 

Our reading from Thursday continued on with the story of Anna, but turned to the thought of her age.

"...She (Anna) was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem." Luke 2:36-38

Can you guess how old Anna was at this time? I don't know if I could give you the exact number myself, but the truth is: she was older than 84! I guess what I would like to ask her is: how long had she been at the temple, fasting and praying and serving the Lord? This is the question I would ask her if I could. What would you want to ask her?

What a long life for Anna the prophetess. How many prophecies had she told that had come true? What were they about? What kind of reputation had this older woman gotten from those around her? Did they all stop and listen when she spoke? Did she speak only ever so often? Was she more commonly known as a quiet woman around the temple? So many questions to ask....

I guess the phrase that speaks to her old age and the attitude of her heart is verse 38, "...to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem." She was just one of many who were waiting for the Redeemer to come. She had been waiting at least 84 years now! What struck for Sarah and I was the faithfulness to God that Anna exemplified, even into her old years. She loved Him with her whole heart and she knew of the prophecies that a Redeemer would come; so she waited... and waited... and waited... and when she thought she couldn't keep waiting, she waited some more...

And at last, at an old age she gets to see the promise of God fulfilled! The only thing that mattered to Anna, the one prophecy that she probably told to anyone who would listen, was actually happening right before her eyes. The redeemer of Jerusalem was finally here! God had come to save His people!

What about my heart? Do I get as excited as Anna got knowing the Redeemer has come? What about God's future promise that my Redeemer is coming again? Will I trust in God no matter what, even if I live to be 84? I pray the answer is a resounding, "Yes!" I pray that for both Sarah and I, as we remember His first coming. May God give us the grace to be faithful to His future promise as well, that He is alive and He is coming again!