looking back in time...

My Anna was only a month and a half old and we were actually waiting for our log-in-date for AMY at the time I wrote this in my private journal while waiting for the daughter we would call Amy...

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Is waiting really a bad thing???

To stay in place of expectation. To look forward expectantly. To be ready and available.These are all definitions for the word wait.

Simeon and Anna. Two people unlikely to steal away any recognition during the Christmas season.

Simeon and Anna waited. They waited for the fulfillment to a promise. The Messiah, the Redeemer, the King, the Savior of the Jewish people.

Anna was a widow. Luke tells us that she "never left the temple but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying." That is what I call being ready and available. There wasn't a chance she would miss the child.

Simeon was "waiting for the consolation of Israel." He was also ready and available. The Spirit moved him and he went to the temple courts where he beheld the Christ.

What gives two old people the kind of Hope that causes them to wait? They expected that if a promise had been made then the promise would be fulfilled.

Luke doesn't say how long these two waited. What is clear is that they did wait. They anticipated. They looked forward.

This gives me hope. I am not waiting for the Messiah; He has come and lives in me. I am not waiting for the deliverance of my people. I am waiting for a daughter. Surely, if these two could wait for the most exciting thing to happen EVER, I can wait for a short while on the Lord. I can look forward expectantly for God to fulfill this promise to me.

A gentle reminder via a nudge from the Spirit to re-explore the very person for whom our little Anna is named. * I am blessed again by the faith of Anna.



*
Background on the name for those wondering...
First and foremost, our Anna is named for the Anna of the New Testament. But, my middle name is Annette, my maternal grandmother's middle name is Anna and my paternal great, great grandmother's name was Anna. We couldn't decide on a middle name (that started with a C of course). When we recieved Anna's referral and saw that her unique Chinese name was "Chenghao" - well, we knew what her middle name was supposed to be. :)