The Extraordinary Gifts of Christmas – The Christmas Gift of Reward.
A Christmas gift usually comes wrapped with a reward inside, that is then is open and revealed. Anna, the prophetess, revealed the truth about who the child, Jesus, would be.
Wrapping Christmas Gifts
Wrapping gifts at Christmas is one of those jobs you either love or hate to do.
Many have an attitude of “why bother, it’s such a waste of time.” But if a gift is not wrapped or concealed and it’s put under the Christmas tree a couple of days before Christmas… what’s the point? It’s exposed, visible for all to see and there is no element of surprise.
God designed how He would reveal His special gift to the world, in extraordinary ways. His plan was to not make a public announcement, for everyone on earth to hear, but to make it known to only a few individuals. In this program; “the Extraordinary Gifts of Christmas,” we are looking at how each one of these people were shown the gift of God and how surprise, marvel, wonder, praise and thankfulness was the response.
The Saviour of the World
His gift was wrapped, in such a way, it could not be seen. Unwrapping it reveals that no one would have ever thought that the Savior of the world would come in humility and be introduced to the most unpopular people.
Who would think God would use a young virgin woman to give birth to His Son; the Savior, Christ the Lord?
What are the chances that a government enforced taxation would cause the, soon to deliver, mother to be in the town where it’s prophesied the Savior would be born?
That angels would appear to shepherds, the lowest of the low, announcing His birth to them and not to the religious leaders or politicians of the day?
Why give an old man a supernatural sense of who the savior is and not everyone?
Unpackaging Jesus
Unpackaging Jesus, for everyone, has the element of the unexpected. When God plans something, without a doubt, the way He does it, is not the way we would have. God is the expert in taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary.
This is part-3 of this series titled, “The Gift of Reward.” We are going to look at another remarkable situation where God revealed the gift of His Son in a very unexpected way.
In our last episode we considered Simeon, an old man who lived in Jerusalem. God had given him the promise that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. One day Joseph and Mary came into the temple with baby Jesus to perform a customary ritual. It was an ordinary situation, but Simeon was led by the Spirit of God to go into the temple and in an extraordinary way he recognized this baby as Savior of the world. He held Him in his arms and praised the Lord for fulfilling His promise to him.
Anna
But Simeon was not alone, there was also a very old lady there named Anna. Her name means, “gracious, one who gives.” We are about to see how she lived up to her name.
She lived a very different life. Luke’s gospel tells us that seven years after she got married, her husband died. She never remarried; up to this point she had been a widow for 84 years, and in that time, she never left the temple.
This would have made Anna well over 103 years old. She was a prophetess; we are not sure exactly what that means, but like Simeon, we are sure that the Holy Spirit was upon her, and she lived her life according to it. She served in the temple continually, night and day, in prayer and fasting.
Temple work and priesthood was appointed in the Old Testament only to the Israelite tribe of Levi and the descendants of the Aaron. We are told she was a descendant from a different tribe; the tribe of Asher. She voluntarily gave herself over to the service of the Lord, when it was not required of her.
It seems that in time the temple became her home, God became her husband, and any void in her life was filled in service.
Anna’s Life
Annas life could have been much different. She could have grown bitter, upset that her husband died so young, leaving her alone. Perhaps re-marriage was a possibility – having a desire to “start over.” She could have shaken her fist at God for allowing things to go the way they did.
Can you relate to this?
Do you feel that your life has been met with some very unfortunate circumstances?
Perhaps you see it as providence, having forced you down a discouraging path that you never expected?
Contentment in Service
Think about Anna. She picked herself up and didn’t allow her misfortunes to get her down. She found contentment in service. Selflessly giving herself for eternal purposes. She is a wonderful example to us all!
On that day, her love for the Lord and her faithfulness preserved her to see and experience the extraordinary.
God had gifted her with length of days to live out this special encounter…
We are told that she was there at exactly the right time. She could have had her back turned, been in another part of the temple serving… no, she came at precisely the moment when Simeon made proclamation of who this baby was.
Spiritual Perception
Even at her age, she didn’t miss a thing! Why? Because, like Simeon, her spiritual perception was not limited. Even though her body was failing with age, she was spry in her sensitivity to the leading of the Spirit.
She gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
This lady, who had so much taken away early in life, giving eighty-four years in temple service, was given a wonderful gift from the Lord. The giver received a gift. Immediately after receiving that gift with gratitude, she at once turns and shares that gift with others who were also patiently waiting for the coming of the Messiah. She could not be silent. Her heart’s desire was to proclaim in praise that the Redeemer had come!
What joy and excitement must have filled the temple that day!
That little baby concealed the fulness of God, on earth, and two very special people, in their later years of life, unwrapped the greatest gift from God. Their faith gave away to sight.
They were so surprised in seeing God’s plan; small enough to hold in their arms, yet so big that nothing could escape His knowing!
Echoing the words of the Apostle John
Simeon and Anna could echo the words of the Apostle John when he wrote:
We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
I John 1:1-3
Join me in part-4, “The Gift of Guidance;” how extraordinary events occur because a star appears in the sky, which is a sign that the King of the Jews is born. A story with much rejoicing, but also, much evil hatred.
Are you enjoying God’s reward? We would love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
Mark Hillis
Mark lives in the small rural village of Fenwick, Ontario with his wife Michelle and three boys.
He joined the FBH International team in February 2022, coming from the business world with a design and art background.
Mark is particularly interested in seeing people come to Christ and grow in their faith. He recently produced the series entitled: Sow to Grow.
Mark serves as an elder at Brockview Bible Chapel in St.Catharines , Ontario.
Visit Mark’s contributor’s page here.
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Images Courtesy of:
Gift giving – ua_Bob_Dymt_ua
Anna by Rembrandt – Richard Mortel
Woman Praising – Barbara Jackson
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