What Did You Get for Christmas?

 

What Did You Get for Christmas?

What Did You Get for Christmas? - Audio/Visual 

When the eighth day arrived, the day of circumcision, the child was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived. Then when the days stipulated by Moses for purification were complete, they took him up to Jerusalem to offer him to God as commanded in God’s Law: “Every male who opens the womb shall be a holy offering to God,” and also to sacrifice the “pair of doves or two young pigeons” prescribed in God’s Law.

In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, and a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him. The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died. Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple. As the parents of the child Jesus brought him in to carry out the rituals of the Law, Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God: “God, you can now release your servant; release me in peace as you promised. With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation; it’s now out in the open for everyone to see: A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations, and of glory for your people Israel.”

Jesus’ father and mother were speechless with surprise at these words. Simeon went on to bless them, and said to Mary his mother, “This child marks both the failure and the recovery of many in Israel, a figure misunderstood and contradicted – the pain of a sword-thrust through you – but the rejection will force honesty, as God reveals who they really are.” Anna the prophetess was also there, a daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher. She was by now a very old woman. She had been married seven years and a widow for eighty-four. She never left the Temple area, worshiping night and day with her fastings and prayers. At the very time Simeon was praying, she showed up, broke into an anthem of praise to God, and talked about the Child to all who were waiting expectantly for the freeing of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:21-38)

So, what did you get for Christmas? That’s a pretty common question now that the gifts have been opened and the dinner has settled. We said it as kids and today, as adults, we say it around the water cooler at work unless you’re working virtually from home. Television commercials are already talking about it – returning the things you got that you didn’t want so that you can get something else in its place. Mediums will be exchanged for larges; eggnog marked half-price for clearance; and clean-up in full swing where lights and decorations come down and Christmas trees are thrown out. Life will be “normal” again. December’s generosity will become January’s payments and the magic fades away.

When I hear that question it reminds me of my teacher, Ms. McDonald, when she asked all her sixth graders at Esther Lindstrom Elementary School that same timeless question when we returned from Christmas break. Laura was the first one to enthusiastically answer the question. She sat in front of me, which was fine with me since I liked sitting close to Laura because she was fairly good at baseball. Her answer was a Chatty Cathy doll. But then Laura went on to tell the class – in excruciating detail – about her doll to the point that my eyes began to glaze over, and I started to regret my seat assignment. “Maybe the doll’s rubbed off on her,” I thought. Thankfully, I was next.

I don’t specifically remember what I said, but I know I didn’t say “a pony,” or a “real guitar.” It was probably something like a baseball glove, or trading cards or Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. Then the girl behind me gave her answer. "An engagement ring!” she shouted. Now in the interests of full disclosure I must say that she’d probably been held back a couple of times and could have been 13 or 14 years old. But this wasn’t some sort of third world country, or first-century Bethlehem we were living in. So that was a pretty remarkable disclosure which, apparently, all the girls in class understood, but the boys thought her “engagement ring” was something you got out of a Cracker Jack box.

But what if, in answer to that question, your first thought was, “I got Jesus for Christmas.” Or what if a friend asked you, “Hey, what’d you get for Christmas?” and you said, “Same as everyone else.” Bewildered, your friend looks at you and laughs, “What are you talking about? ‘Everyone’ I know didn’t all get the same thing.” “Sure, they did,” you respond. “We all got Jesus.” Maybe one of the sweetest gifts God gave during his son’s earthly ministry was when Jesus was only eight days old and God gave an incredibly special gift to two very unassuming people — a man named Simeon, and a widow named Anna.

Simeon’s age isn’t specified, but most Bible scholars presume him to be elderly in light of the phrase, “The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died,” which would be a really weird biblical footnote if he’d been a young man. Plus, Simeon’s “Okay, I can die happy now” response after meeting the Christ child (“God, you can now release your servant; release me in peace as you promised”) seems to imply his advanced age since there’s no evidence that he had a death wish. Anna, on the other hand, is certifiably old. That’s because she had been previously married for seven years and, since then, had been a widow for eighty-four more. So, if you do the math, and if you assume Anna married when she was around fourteen, as most Jewish girls did at the time, she was probably around 105. Now, that’s old – certifiably or otherwise.

Luke, whose medical specialty could have been gerontology for all we know, explains that both of these elderly people hung out at the Temple a lot because of their devotion to God. But given their card-carrying AARP status, you can’t help but wonder if they weren’t just a little lonely, too. At their age maybe they had no one to go home to; no one to talk to at the dinner table; no one to sit beside while on the couch watching It’s a Wonderful Life. Nothing in their tidy little apartments at the City of God Retirement Home to keep them company except their cats and cataracts.

Apparently, they puttered around the church every day, praying at the altar, maybe hobbling back and forth on errands for the priests like carrying boxes of candles up from the basement or carefully rubbing down each church pew with linseed oil until it gleamed. The temple regulars had grown accustomed to always seeing the white-haired gentleman wearing the high-water khakis and that nice, little old lady who always smelled like Pledge. Most worshipers probably didn’t give Simeon and Anna any more thought than they did the shiny pews or the plentiful supply of candles up front. They were old; they were fixtures; they were invisible. But then one day a teenaged couple walked in the front door of the Temple. The young husband was wearing a clean but tattered pair of blue jeans and had birds squawking in his backpack. His wife, who couldn’t have been more than fourteen or fifteen, was carrying what looked like a brand-new baby. They both shyly approached Simeon.

That’s when the young man cleared his throat and said, “I’m sorry to bother you, sir, but can you tell us where to go to give God an offering on behalf of our new little boy?” Simeon immediately put the mop down and took a deep breath to steady himself. Then he reached his gnarled hands toward the new mom and asked her gently, “May I hold him, please?” Mary nodded and handed the newborn Son of God to Simeon. He cradled the pink-cheeked Messiah for several minutes and then began to sing a praise song he’d written many years before but had never actually sung aloud.

Anna, who’d been in the women’s restroom the whole time refilling the paper towel dispenser, was shuffling back toward the sanctuary when she heard Simeon’s warbling baritone voice. “What’s that old goose up to now?” she thought. And as his voice rose in pitch as she wobbled her way to the sound, her feeble heart skipped a beat because she didn’t realize that the sound was actually Simeon singing; she was afraid he’d fallen down, broken his hip and was screaming in pain. That was until she turned the corner and saw her dear old friend’s enraptured countenance. Then she saw the baby in his arms and, realizing immediately the miracle that was taking place, ran toward them with the speed and agility of a track star.

Day after day, year after year, Anna and Simeon accepted and appreciated the little joys that came their way: a place to go to volunteer and feel useful; a friend with whom to share stories and prayer requests; maybe even free Wi-Fi in the Temple lobby. It makes you wonder if their willingness to recognize the sweet, little gifts God blesses us with each and every day are part of the reason why God chose them to be recipients of the same incomparable surprise present he gave the shepherds wandering in the fields that special night only a week earlier. Good news and great joy — the Savior of the world wrapped in an ordinary blanket. God does stuff like that.

The long and patient faithfulness of Simeon and Anna is a beautiful example for those of us who, like them, are waiting for the Lord’s return. But unlike Anna and Simeon, we’re not left to wait alone. Paul told the struggling Gentile believers in Colossi, “Christ lives in you, the hope of glory!” (Col. 1:27) And when you think about it, Christ grew in Mary until he had to come out. And like Simeon and Anna, Christ will grow in us until the same occurs. He will come out in our speech. He will come out in our actions. He will come out in our decisions. Every place you live will be a Bethlehem, and every day you live will be a Christmas.

So, what’d you get for Christmas? I got Jesus, and so did you.

Happy New Year!

Randy