Watching and Waiting

My younger son and his bride were able to hear the heartbeat of their baby this week for the first time and their exclamations as they each shared the news with me were all joy and relief commingled. As they eagerly await the birth of their firstborn, their hopes and fears meet as in the little town of Bethlehem so many years ago.

Expectant is synonymous with pregnancy. Yet waiting with eager anticipation during the nine months preceding the birth of a child hardly compares to the years of expectancy for those in Israel who awaited Messiah. Many knew the prophecies but few stayed the course.

As a mother who carried three children to term, I remember details from each birth, but very little about my pregnancies. My family gathered on the day I went into labor, awaiting the call from my husband with the invitation to come see and the announcement- we have a healthy baby boy. Then a girl. Then another boy.

My kids are brilliant and they will undoubtedly leave their mark on the world in their own unique ways but not like this baby born in Bethlehem. This babe’s birth was foretold hundreds of years beforehand and promised from the very beginning of time! He is the “lamb slain from the creation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8)

“The one who is the True Light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him.

He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”

John 1:9-12 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.1.9-12.NLT

My children were welcomed by all who knew and loved me and my husband. Their visitors brought flowers and gifts to commemorate their births. Jesus was rejected, his birth overlooked, except by a few. Shepherds who heard the angels midnight chorus sought Him out and repeated His story to anyone who would listen. Wise men came bearing gifts from afar to welcome the newborn king. A jealous king hunted for Him but not to worship Him as he claimed.

And then there was Simeon and Anna. My children were fortunate to have both sets of grandparents and half of their great-grandparents living at the time of their births. Mary had Elizabeth and Zechariah. They knew exactly whose Son she carried, but that’s all we’re told until the infant Jesus was eight days old and his parents took Him to the Temple to offer the appropriate sacrifices and have Him circumcised.

“Eight days later, when the baby was circumcised, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel even before he was conceived.

At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel.

The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.

That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there.

He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying,

“Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!”

Jesus’ parents were amazed at what was being said about him.”

Luke 2:21, 25-33 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.2.21-33.NLT

“Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four.

She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer.

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.”

Luke 2:36-38 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.2.36-38.NLT

Only these two recognized Jesus as Messiah. In the Temple, His Father’s house, why was He not the central figure of a grand celebration? During this Advent season, I’m asking myself the same question.

He came to his own and his own did not receive him.

“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”

John 1:12 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.1.12.NLT

“What can I give Him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I’d bring a lamb.

If I were a wise man, I’d do my part.

What can I give Him?

I give Him my heart.”

In the Bleak Midwinter

~Christina Rossetti