Biblical No-Names

09.19.11

Luke 2.25; 36-37
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.
36 There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, 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 worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.

Simeon and Anna – what a pair! Simeon was righteous and devout. That meant he was God-centered and Heaven-bent. The winds of life bent him toward Heaven and he always thought about God. The righteous always have that quirky trait: their thoughts are incessantly about God; day and night they think about God; work and play they think about God. Little in life distracts them from the Majesty of Him.

And Anna! Oh what a precious jewel she was. She too thought about God all the time but she also prayed all the time. The righteous are in constant conversation with God; they have that quirk – always, always in communication with their King. Anna kinda reminds me of Teresa of Calcutta for some reason…just sayin’.

Simeon and Anna were indeed quirky – they weren’t like the rest of their pedestrian fellows who were busy working or parenting, or politicking or whatever. Oh yes, the rest went to church, paid their tithes and offered their offerings, but they lacked that God-centered, gentle quirkiness. Make no mistake, quirky is not synonymous for weak – Anna and Simeon may have been aged but they were certainly NOT weak. And they weren’t harmless either. The devil himself hated them for their faith, and you can bet they paid the full price for their belief. But weak and harmless are not words to describe the faithful who will not budge from their devotion to Christ regardless of the swarms of satanic flies that pester them. God is King! And they both knew it very well.

I’ve taken inventory of my thoughts today and sadly, I have not been righteous in that regard. It’s not that I’m not righteous in Him, because He is my righteousness! It’s just that the winds of life have blown me in a direction other than toward heaven. It’s just that my thoughts have been self-centered, and weak, and fearful. And my prayers? Gosh, for the most part there wasn’t much praying either; just more self-centeredness, weakness, and sadly, faithlessly, fear.

Anna and Simeon weren’t sinless; they were just beheld by the Beholder as His own and thereby righteous, devout, and accepted. Yes, there was maturity and some life-experience with both – but those things only led them both closer to God in their living; and remarkably when God’s Son entered the Temple that day (via His earthly caretakers), Simeon and Anna both had front-row seats! Not bad for a couple of otherwise Biblical no-names…

To be truly a saint doesn’t mean you get the posthumous title. Teresa of Calcutta at this moment probably snickers at the thought – her life was all about Jesus and walking every step of the way right next to Him – that’s what sets a saint apart from the rest of the pedestrian crowd. Jesus probably snickers too!