March 17 - It will be worth the wait

Numbers 26:1-51

Luke 2:36-52

Psalm 60:1-12

Proverbs 11:15

I'm a day late with this reflection.  I apologize.  Hopefully, it will have been worth the wait.

Waiting - it isn't something people usually like to do.  We live in a society that wants it now!  Fast food, overnight shipping, drive through windows, microwave dinners...all signs of a society impatient for self gratification.  Which is why Anna's example is so amazing.  

Today's reading doesn't tell us how old Anna was when she got married, so we don't know how old she was when her husband died.  But at a time when people tended to get married much younger than I was when I did (I was almost 31), it is pretty clear that she has spent decades as a widow.  Let's say she married at 20 - she would've been widowed at 27 - which means she would have spent 57 years where she "never left the temple, but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying".

Fifty-seven years.  It is easy to think that those 57 years were difficult, were a struggle, the only gratification finally coming when she saw the Christ child.  But I believe that not to be the case.  I suspect that, as she spent more time with Yahweh, worshiping Him in His temple, communing with Him night and day, she developed a relationship with Him; one that made her look forward to spending her day with Him, in His house, in conversation with Him.  And her encounter with the Christ child would have been almost like her Friend inviting her to see His Son shortly His birth.  

See, that's the relationship I want with our Lord; one where I spend time with Him not because I have to, not because it's the right thing to do, not because Pastor's going to ask me about my relationship with Him when I next see him at church- but because I have a relationship with Him that makes Him the high point of my day, that makes me WANT to spend the early morning first fruits of my day with Him.  And then, when I get to know Him that well, I want to get the invitation to party with His Son too.

I know that WILL be worth the wait.