We start Christmas week with a peek at a wonderful woman of faith.

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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 2:38

I’ve Been Waiting for You

Anna

This is the One, the promised Messiah. This babe is the one foretold. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to the Lord.

The Lord let me see this in a vision when I first began to prophesy. It was shortly after my husband died, almost sixty years ago now, and it’s the reason I serve here in the temple.

The rabbi married my husband and me just down the steps in the outer courts. I was only sixteen years old; my Avram was approaching thirty. We lived in Jerusalem, not far from the sheep gate. We could not have children, but before we went to the doctor to find out why, my Avram took a fever. After only seven years of marriage, he was gone. I was alone.

We were always devout. We prayed together, and he taught me every week. At mealtime  we would sit and discuss what the scriptures said. He would tell me what the men read in the temple.

When my husband died, I could no longer afford to live in my home outside the temple. I approached one of the priests and asked if there was something I could do within the gates. He allowed me to work in the outer courts. I would clean up every evening after the crowds headed to their homes or lodgings. He allowed me to live in a small room on the temple’s outer wall.

At first I felt ashamed, cleaning up after all those filthy animals. Picking up the litter scattered by the merchants and their customers in the temple market humbled me. But soon I realized I could do it as an act of worship to the Lord God of Israel.

Shortly after Avram’s death, I began to see. I had glimpses—flashes, at first—of things to come. I remember the first time I realized what was happening.

A woman, only days from the delivery of her child, came into the courts. She looked tired and burdened. As I watched her, she changed before me. No longer struggling to walk and bent from the weight of the child within, she was standing upright with babe in arms—a baby boy with a full head of hair. Her countenance expressed the joy in her heart. Even the color of her clothes had changed.

It was less than two months later when she walked past me with her boy, and she was wearing the dress I saw in my vision. I didn’t say or do anything about it then, but it happened more and more. Some things I saw would later come to pass. Others . . . well, I don’t know if I missed them or if I just didn’t understand what I was seeing.

There was one vision I had over and over, and today I am standing right in the middle of it. In my vision, I saw a young woman come into the courts with an older man. She carried a newborn in her arms. It reminded me of my Avram and me. This was our dream, to bring our own child to the temple for dedication. But there was something special about this couple. In my vision I saw the old man, that Simeon fellow who seemed to start every conversation with “When Messiah comes,” take the babe from the young girl. He held Him up at eye level and began to speak. I couldn’t make out the words, but I saw tears in his eyes.

And it’s happening, this day I have seen for sixty years. Thanks be to the Almighty One. Right here and right now Messiah is in His temple dressed for His dedication.

I timidly approached the couple.

“May I hold the child?”

The young mother put Him in my arms.

“Do you know who He is?”

It was a strange question to be asking a mother about her own child, but she wasn’t surprised. She just nods and said,

“We know. His name is Jesus.”

They went on to see the priest, but I have not stopped telling everyone I see that Messiah has come to His temple.

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To read the original story, see Luke 2:36-38.

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Thanks for coming by,

See you again tomorrow,

Ben