We are going to close out the year by looking at 25 posts on Mary and Joseph for Advent. Part 10: More affirmations through prophecy for Mary and Joseph.
Luke 2:36-38 (NLT)
36 Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. 37 Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four.[c] She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. 38 She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.
Dear God,
I do not know that I had ever done the math, but Anna had to have been 105 or so. I mean, these are Genesis years. These are modern 20th and 21st century years. I wonder what it was like for Mary to have Simeon’s prophecy followed by Anna talking to others about her son. Anna was obviously well-known to everyone, since she had been at the temple for 84 years. I wonder if Mary had ever seen Anna on past trips to Jerusalem as a girl. And here she was now, in her special situation as Jesus’s mother, and Anna already knew all about it. Again, what an amazing set of affirmations you gave to her and Joseph.
There are times in my life when you have brought me affirmations in the midst of struggles. Sometimes it is related to parenting. Other times it was about work or marriage. I remember when I was unemployed years ago, and you brought financial respite at just the right times. In the heart of the COVID pandemic in 2020, you helped our nonprofit with financial resources that made all the difference as we responded to the crisis. You even bring me occasional encouragements in my relationships with my wife, children, and extended family. It is quite remarkable. The scary thing is that I can see that if I were not spending time in prayer with you, I would probably take all of this for granted. It is often only when I sit down in prayer that you reveal the affirmations to me for what they are.
Father, I take these affirmations and thank you. I do see good signs of your hand in my children’s lives. I see your hand in my marriage. I see your hand all over the place. No, things are not turning out how I would have thought (or how I thought I wanted), but I have faith that they are turning out just as you need them to. So I give that to you. I give you all the freedom you need to do whatever you feel is right in my life. For your glory, Lord, not mine.
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
