One Year Bible: March 17

She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.

Luke 2:38

To read today’s portion of scripture, you can purchase The One Year Bible (paid link) or find the following in your Bible:

Numbers 26:1-51
Luke 2:36-52
Psalm 60:1-12
Proverbs 11:15

The older I get, the less I care about fluff. I don’t care who in Hollywood is getting married or remarried or divorced for the fifth time. I don’t know any rappers by name. In fact, if you put the ten most popular singers in front of me and asked me to identify them, I couldn’t. Ask me about almost every movie that’s come out in the last ten years, and I will give you a blank stare. Same with television series … except Downton Abbey. I do love my Downton Abbey. But I came to love it about five years after everyone else, because I’m always late to that kind of party.

The vantage point from where I stand now is that I see a lot of traveled land behind me, and an uncertain amount in front. Maybe I’ll live another thirty years. But maybe I won’t. And more often than not these days, I think, What do I need to sift from my life, and what do I want to leave when I go?

I want to keep sifting all the fluff from my life, and I want to leave an example of prayer and thankfulness for my grandchildren, and lots of stories of all the ways God wooed me, and rescued me, and loved me. That’s the great motivator that keeps me writing these devotionals one day at a time. I want to scribble my story while I still have time to do so, because in the end, I want to leave behind my heart.

Uplifted hands and the words, “Praise waits for You, Oh God, in me.

All of that has given me a new appreciation for Simeon and Anna. Their lives had been condensed down to the one thing that mattered: Jesus. Simeon, a righteous man full of the Spirit, watched day and night, waiting for just one glimpse of the promised Messiah. Anna spent her days and nights praying, praising and fasting. Because their hearts were set on God, they recognized Him instantly. And we’re told that at the moment she saw Jesus, Anna thanked God and then went out to speak of Him to the others who were waiting for rescue.

How can we not do the same?