I have never been able to sleep on Christmas Eve and I fully expect this year will be no different. As a child, it was always the excitement of waking up Christmas morning anxious to see what would be under the tree. The anticipation usually began a few days after Thanksgiving when the Sears catalog came to the door (Yes… I am THAT many years old). Each day the excitement would build until finally, it was Christmas Day. As an adult, the excitement is still there though the reason for it is quite different. The anticipation still builds but it’s not the gifts under the tree that fuels it.

There is great value in building towards Christmas with a season of celebration. Each year the faithful looking forward, eagerly waiting to celebrate the arrival of the promised King, just as the faithful did that first Christmas morning. Although their wait was MUCH longer! This week we look at Christ’s arrival through the eyes of a faithful man named Simeon. One who eagerly waited with anticipation, one to whom the Lord had said… Christmas is finally coming!

Luke 2:22-35

“And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought (Jesus) up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord), … and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” There was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”