Miracles in the Margins: Anna (Christmas 2025 - Part 3)

We'll turn, if you would, to Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

We'll be in Luke chapter 2. I'm sure that's not a surprise.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

It is Christmas. There are other options that we

could be in at Christmas, but Luke 2 is the is the go to.

I guess we'll we'll be at verse 36 is where we'll be when we get

there. The traditional events of the

Christmas story are are well known to all Christians, right?

The birth of Jesus includes 3 wise men bearing gifts.

There were shepherds out in the fields in the in the middle of

the winter and and a baby was born in a stable and there was

no room in the inn. These aspects of the accounts

are firmly fixed in in our popular mind and culture, but

there are a couple characters and moments that tend to escape

people's minds and thoughts when they think of the Christmas

story. I'm going to go out on a limb

and guess that if I asked you who Anna was, you would probably

have no idea. This morning.

We're going to learn what we can from this woman who only appears

in three verses of Scripture. So, but in order to help us

understand our timeline here, I want to take a few minutes to

summarize Luke chapter 2 verses one through 35.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

This is just kind of a a fly over of what we see in those

verses and and help give us a little clarity as we approach

this moment where today's passage is.

As chapter 2 commences, we embark on the actual birth

narrative of our Savior. Caesar Augustus had issued A

decree that everyone should go to their hometown in order to be

counted. So Mary and Joseph had to make

the trip from Nazareth, which was way up in the north near the

Sea of Galilee, all the way to the city of David, Bethlehem

down in the South, a trip of nearly 100 miles.

And this was, of course, while Mary was very pregnant.

Now, presumably many other people had returned to Bethlehem

at the same time and for the same reason, so there was no

room for them to stay in what the most texts refer to as the

inn. However, the traditional word

for an inn isn't actually used here.

It's a different word. Instead, Luke used the word

cataluma, which actually refers to a room or or a guest room.

It's possible they were, they were trying to stay with family,

but there wasn't room in the guest room and the stable was

attached to the guest room and, and there was, there were, there

were windows likely going from the stable into the guest room,

kind of like the takeout counter.

When you, when you go up to the takeout counter, there's a

window and, and it separates the kitchen space from, from the

public space, right? That's kind of how it would be

there in a Jewish Home there in the 1st century.

The, the stable would be attached to the home and there

would be windows and under the windows there would be mangers,

the feeding troughs. So that's the animals, whatever

they were, could poke their heads through the window.

I imagine it kind of like Mr. Ed, sorry to digress there for a

second, but poking their head through the window and they

could eat the hay or whatever was set there underneath the

window. So Jesus was born.

He was, He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and he was

laid there in a Manger under the window.

Soon after Jesus was born, a single Angel appeared to the

shepherds who were out in the fields.

They were watching over their sheep.

This Angel told them that he had a message that was good news of

great joy. We heard about that this morning

with the Advent passage. He had a good message of great

joy for all people because the Savior was born in the city of

David and, and they could find him wrapped in swaddling clothes

and lying in a Manger. And the shepherds who were who

are now at this moment witnesses to thousands of angels, no

longer just one, now thousands. They went and found the baby

just as the Angel had said, and they rejoiced that they were

able to witness this miraculous event.

And then the law calls for circumcising boys on the 8th

day. So Jesus was circumcised on the

8th day and there would normally be a ceremony around this and

that's when a Hebrew child would would receive his or or her

name. Girls would go through another

process, obviously not circumcision, but they would

have a celebration also a ceremony also on the 8th day and

they would receive their name. So on the 8th day the baby

received the name Yeshua just as the Angel had instructed.

Why the name Yeshua? Remember in in Hebrew culture it

was common for people to give their babies names that meant

something. They were they were significant.

Yeshua in Hebrew, Jesus or Joshua in English.

These names mean Yahweh saves or the Lord is our salvation.

So that was on the 8th day, but then 40 days after Jesus is

born, he's presented at the temple.

It's important to say that all these keeping of customs, these

aren't just useless details. To me they signify the depth of

Joseph and Mary's faith. They were diligent to keep the

law. They had Jesus circumcised at

the right time. They gave him the right name.

They went to the temple 40 days after Jesus birth so that Mary

could be purified. You see, the law required 7 days

of impurity after the birth of a boy and then another 33 days on

top of that before the mother could be declared ritually pure.

And the piety of this young couple is evidence all through

the whole Christmas narrative. Now as they brought Jesus up to

the temple, they they met an older man there named Simeon,

another minor character in the story.

But he was full of the Spirit, and God revealed to him that he

wouldn't die until he saw the Lord's Messiah or the Anointed

of the Lord. That is the 1 specifically

called to bring redemption to God's people.

Now when this old man saw the baby Jesus, he instantly knew he

was seeing the Messiah, and he proceeded to prophecy over him,

since the Holy Spirit had to reveal to him that the Messiah

this baby would be for both Jews and Gentiles is what Simeon

says. So that brings us up to today's

passage, Luke 2, verses 36 through 38.

Luke 2:36–38

So if you're able, would you stand as we read from this

passage beginning at verse 36? And there was a prophetess,

Anna, the daughter Ephanuel of the tribe of Asher.

She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband

seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow

until she was 84. She did not depart from the

Temple, worshipping with fasting and prayer night and day, and

coming up at the that very hour she began to give thanks to God

and to speak of Him to all who were waiting for the redemption

of Jerusalem. You may be seated.

So Anna is there also at the temple on this occasion when

when Simeon has just seen this baby Jesus that at 40 days old

has been presented at the temple, as is customary, Anna's

there also. So let's see what we can learn

about her. So as we look at Anna's

identity, verses 36 and 37 read, there was a prophetess, Anna,

the daughter of Fanwell of the tribe of Asher.

She was advanced in years, and having lived with her husband

seven years from when she was a virgin and then as a widow until

she was 84. Luke is remarkably specific

here. But that's what we expect of a

doctor and historian, right? He's detailed.

So this this means you, you can't write this off.

You can't just sweep these details under the rug.

He's calling these out things out for a reason.

He's referring to a specific person from a specific place and

time. Her father's name is Fanwell,

and she's from the tribe of Asher way up north on the

Mediterranean. Not only do we know where she's

from, we also know that she was married seven years before her

husband died. And now here she is, many years

removed from the days of her youth at the spry young age of

84. In this passage it almost acts

like an aside in Jesus life. It's an honorable mention on the

way from Jesus being presented at the temple at 40 days old to

suddenly Luke jumps from Jesus being 40 days old to suddenly

Jesus is 12 years old when when he goes up to the temple.

Now Anna's story encourages us to take notice of those who

might be overlooked living at the margins of life.

As we've been talking about in this series.

She's a widow. She seems to have no children

around, but God knows her. Her name is called out

specifically. He knows her.

Her father's name is known. Her tribe is known.

God knows when she was married, how long she was married, and

how long she has been alone. He knows that she has been

faithful, staying close to the temple, worshipping, fasting,

and praying over what we could reasonably speculate were long,

lonely years without significant means of income.

Anna has been faithful to God and God has been faithful to

her, knowing her personally and entrusting her to be one of the

first witnesses to proclaim his redemption.

How awesome is that? So I Anna's identity is very

real and specific. Next we'll look at her gifting.

She was a prophetess, the female form of a prophet.

A prophet was a simply a spokesperson who proclaims God's

word and speaks for him. A prophet or prophetess would

proclaim God's word and speak for him.

This person's job was simply to to speak God's words.

They were the messenger, if you will, whether or not their

message was in vogue with their audience.

And often the audience did not want to hear the message that

the prophets would bring. Their message had two basic

components, forth telling and foretelling.

Forth telling is speaking something forth.

This is the bulk of what the prophets did they they spoke

forth the words of God, proclaiming truth and calling

for righteousness. Speaking forth, then the other

part of their message in which people often assume is what they

actually did. This isn't really the bulk of

what they did was foretelling. Foretelling is telling events of

the future events, whether they were events of judgement or

events of salvation. They were sometimes thought to

know the future. And here in this moment, Anna is

is forth, telling. She's declaring who this baby is

and this declaration of who this baby is has significant

ramifications for the future. So the Anna's only one of only a

handful of prophetesses who are who are recorded in Scripture.

There's Miriam, that's Aaron and Moses, sister, the judge

Deborah. And then when King Josiah found

a copy of the law in the temple, he was he was troubled over his

nation's obedience. And so he consulted the

prophetess Holda to understand what would happen.

She told him that that Judah would be judged for its

idolatry. But King Josiah himself, he

would be spared because of his humility and his tender heart

before God. Then, Isaiah's wife was also a

prophetess. And that is the entire list of

prophetesses who are called out by name in Scripture.

There there aren't many of them, and when you consider how many

male prophets there were, the female numbers pale in

comparison. However, it's important to

remind ourselves of the context in which these things happen.

Remember, God is meeting his people where they are in a

particular context, cultural context.

It's easy for us to sit here today and and judge them, but

when we consider the context and and the culture around them,

what God does stands in stark contrast to the culture in their

day and age. The words and testimony of women

were discounted and considered unreliable.

They couldn't even testify in court and they were considered

second class citizens. Yet, God chose to utilize women

to help communicate His message and bring redemption to

humanity. Gabriel's first words to to Mary

were You are highly favored, that is, you are highly graced.

Then when Jesus is 40 days old, here on this occasion God

revealed Jesus identity to this widow Anna.

When Jesus began teaching, women flocked to hear him.

When he encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, He

engaged her and granted her this woman who was so looked down

upon because of the numerous husbands she had had.

He granted her salvation. And then the woman who's caught

in adultery, when she's brought to him by the Pharisees, Jesus

gives her grace and truth. Women were the first ones to

discover that Jesus was no longer in the tomb.

So the transforming power of Jesus had given women the

courage and boldness to openly follow him.

And it all began with a teenage mom named Mary.

And it carried through to this widow, Anna.

She got the pleasure of announcing the Messiah to

everyone that she met. So now let's look at Anna's

calling. You might say, well, you, you

just said she was a prophetess. Isn't that her calling?

No, that's actually her gifting. She was a prophet, but what is

it that Anna was called to? What was her vocation?

What was she doing? How was she spending her time?

Well, verse 37, B told us that she didn't depart from the

temple. She was worshipping with fasting

and prayer night and day. So night and day, Anna was

committed to worshipping God at the temple.

She was committed to worshipping God at the temple.

Obviously she wasn't there 24/7, she she couldn't be, but she was

practically always there. She would regularly find herself

in the court of women offering prayers alongside the other

younger women. Worship wasn't part of her life,

it was her life. And how is it that Anna

worshipped? She worshipped, the text says,

through fasting and prayer. She would observe the major fast

days like Yom Kippur, the the Day of Atonement, as well as

other fast days that were implemented when when the Exiles

had returned back to Israel from the promised back to the

Promised land, from the Babylonian exile.

It's possible she might have even done some of the same

things that Pharisees did and fasted twice a week.

We don't know. The text doesn't tell us

explicitly what her habit was, but it makes it very clear that

fasting was very much part of her life.

And we can also deduce that she was at the temple for each of

the daily prayer times, morning, noon and night.

She was fully devoted in her calling and following Yahweh.

Now it seems to me that when the text calls out her age of being

84, that indicates a a long and single minded devotion to God.

If she'd been a widow in her 20s and regularly attending the

temple, that is of course one thing.

She she was young at one point and could easily worship in that

capacity, right? But here she is some 60 years

later, still attending the temple.

Her devotion to God most certainly could not be called

into question as she had spent 60 years regularly going to the

temple. And then verse 38, we find her

response says coming up at the very hour she began to give

thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for

the redemption of Jerusalem. So Anna's first response was

thankfulness. She recognized the baby Jesus as

the Messiah and she was grateful.

Now it's amazing to me that that a woman presumably near the end

of her life, like she doesn't have too much time left, right,

especially in their time, 84 years of age was was quite old.

So she's near the end of her life and and this baby isn't

going to make a significant impact in her life.

It's logical to assume that that Anna has passed long before

Jesus even shows up to the temple at 12 years of age.

Anna has probably passed long before that moment, so he's not

going to make a significant impact, change her life, her

conditions or anything. But yet she's grateful, her

heart rejoiced for the salvation that would come to her neighbors

and and she would be able to live and die with the knowledge

knowing she also had seen the Messiah.

And the next thing she did, she proclaimed redemption.

She proclaimed redemption had come.

I imagine her telling every passerby at the temple, everyone

that she met on on her walk home or on her way to the temple each

day, Hey, I met the Messiah, the one who is going to redeem us

from this tyranny. Someday we're going to be free

from Rome. This 84 year old woman comes up

to you and starts proclaiming freedom from Rome.

Are you going to believe her? You're probably going to

question her, right? Sorry lady.

I, I think you're kind of losing it or something.

You have to imagine people thought she was crazy.

Now it's possible that Anna's perspective was more of the

socio political sorts rather than the soteriological sort.

That is, the sort Speaking of God's grace coming into our

lives. But she knew that this was

something important. She knew that this was the one

that Isaiah and the prophets had spoken of.

When the gospel has gripped you, you can't help but speak it out

and share it. You can't help but tell others

the good news. And that's what Anna did.

She proclaimed redemption to everyone that she would see.

So this is Anna's life and there are some things that we can

learn from her. There are three specific lessons

that we can take away from Anna's life.

The 1st is she had an unwavering faith.

She had an unwavering faith. Pardon me for a moment while I

grab something I forgot. I have an illustration and I

forgot to grab a Bible. This is not a Bible, but it will

work. Anna's faith was firmly

grounded. Under no circumstances would she

be. Would she be swayed from the

truth. She wasn't going to follow any

other route. She was firmly committed to

following Yahweh. Psalm one, one through 3 tells

us of this type of person. Blessed is the man who walks not

in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of

sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in

the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He's like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its

fruits in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and all

that he does he prospers. Anna was grounded in God's Word

like a tree planted by streams of water.

The tree planted by the stream always has access to water,

right? The rest of the land around

could be barren, but the tree that's planted by the water can

grow. Her roots were deep to soak up

the nutrients of the Word, and there was fruit in her life.

So how do we actualize this in our lives?

There's an illustration that the the Navigators came out a number

of years ago and it's called the hand illustration.

In order to have a solid grasp on your Bible, you need 5

aspects. The pinky is for hearing show up

each week to our services. Not once a month or even twice a

month. Now, regular attendance is

considered roughly twice a month.

Back in the day, we were there every every single week.

We were there on Sunday night. We were there on Wednesday

night. How many of you have lived that

right? I know.

I know a bunch. You did right.

OK. Yeah.

Show up every week. Of course you're going to miss.

Yeah, we get that. Show up every week to be

faithful to hear the word of God.

Next is reading. That's the ring finger reading

the word. Generally speaking, we retain

15% of what we read. Reading is the foundation of our

quiet time with God, right? This isn't just reading a

chapter in the Bible, maybe a couple times a week or or

something like that, or reading a devotional.

This involves actually reading the word and processing it.

Read it, understand it, digest it.

This leads us to the middle finger.

Now you can see why I have three fingers up.

This leads us to the middle finger.

So the middle finger is studying.

Study the word. Studying takes time.

This isn't just 5 minutes. Sure, studying doesn't have to

be an hour, but studying takes investing time into it.

It asks a little bit more of us than just simply reading the

word. Then after that, the fourth

finger, your index finger, is memorizing.

When you memorize the word, this puts the word in you.

It is stored up in your mind, in your heart.

So then in a moment of temptation or or difficulty

trial, whatever the case may be, you're able to recall Scripture

as the Holy Spirit brings that to your remembrance.

And lastly, the thumb is meditating, meditating.

So we meditate on the word, we dwell on it, zinc on it

continually. And the word is like a cow

chewing its cud, which is thoroughly gross, but it's

continually bringing that word back up.

Bring the word back up and meditate and think on that.

So when we have hearing, reading, studying, memorizing,

and meditating, then that gives us a firm hold, a firm grasp on

the Word of God. With all 5 tools, we're able to

move just from simply surface level engagement with the Word

to to letting the Word of Christ richly dwell in you.

As it says in Colossians, the Word starts to become part of

you, to infiltrate every fiber of your being.

So hear it, read it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it in

order to strengthen your grasp on Scripture.

And some people will ask, well, how many days a week do I need

to do this? Do I do this five days a week?

Like it's a job? Do I do it six days a week?

And, and I, I take a day off a, a Sabbath day off or do I do it

every day? Well, I will tell you to do it

every day, but here, here, here's here's the caveat, if you

will. I don't want to encourage you

down downplaying your time, but remember, if you want to develop

your relationship with your spouse, you don't skip days of

communicating, right? And when you don't communicate

for long periods of time, then your relationship with your

spouse starts to suffer. It's the same way with our

relationship with God. Now four days.

There's this thing called the power of 4 four days is is the

mark. It's the point at which somebody

is able to really experience significant growth in their

spiritual life. The Center for Bible Engagement

surveyed more than 100,000 people around the world and they

found that at day four, if people were regularly in the

Word 4 four days a week, then that was the greatest indicator

of their spiritual growth and health.

So at a minimum, spend time in the Word at least four days a

week. But I would encourage you every

single day, make that a habit cannot go a day without being in

the Word. And when you do that, you will

see significant radical changes in your life.

It can be tempting to let time go by without being in the Word,

and before you know it, perhaps you're looking at days, weeks,

even months without being in God's Word.

But one of the best ways to consistently spend time in God's

Word is to find a Bible reading plan that you enjoy.

I'm a huge advocate for reading through the Bible in a year, and

there are a lot of Bible reading plans on EU Version app that I'm

sure probably most of you have downloaded on your phone.

Did you know all it takes is 15 to 20 minutes a day to read

through the Bible in a year? 15 to 20 minutes.

I'm in the 20 range. I read slower, but all it takes

is 15 to 20 minutes a day to read through the entire Bible in

a year. But often people get stuck when

they're reading. Either they're not necessarily

processing what they're reading or or they start at Page 1 and

they end up in Leviticus and they start to tune out.

And I understand it could be difficult to navigate some of

those pages. But that's why I love a couple

of abidable reading plans that I have listed on the notes sheet

because they help you process what you're reading and see the

significance in those pages and in those details.

Couple of the Bible reading plans I have written down there,

There is one story that leads to Jesus, which is by Tim Mackey

and the Bible project. One story that leads to Jesus

actually involves a number of, if you know the Bible Project,

they have videos for every single book of the Bible that

are just absolutely well done. So you'll have videos like that

to watch. You might have blog posts that

they've written to read that relate to that day's reading and

help help you gain clarity of that reading.

Actually, that plan, one story that leads to Jesus actually in

the Old Testament follows the Hebrew order of Scripture rather

than our order that you find in our Bibles.

It actually follows the Hebrew order of the Scriptures.

So it's interesting to read it in that context and understand

how Hebrew people would have related to the word.

And then the other Bible reading plan I have listed is the Bible

Recap by Tara Lee Kabul. This is an excellent resource.

It involves listening to a daily podcast 6789 minutes in length

about your Bible reading plan. And if you want, you can, she

has lots of resources that you can journal.

You can fill out a study guide for each day's reading, an

excellent, excellent resource there as well.

And she utilizes A chronological plan is what she does.

Now's the time to start thinking about these things, right?

Today's the 14th, so the first is like tomorrow, like he's

going to be here so fast, but start thinking about that now.

What does God want for you in this next year?

How can you become further grounded in the faith?

I make it a habit personally each year to go go through the

entire scripture each year. Like I said, it's it's not a

hard thing to do. You just have to be persistent.

Make it a daily habit. But think about that now and see

what God would have for you in this coming year, how He wants

you to grow yourself in your faith this coming year.

And then Anna's faith was unwavering, but it wasn't just

unwavering that that faith, that that depth of faith gave her a

boldness in sharing the gospel. She didn't know she was sharing

the gospel. Maybe she did, I don't know.

She didn't know who it was the gospel.

Maybe I don't know that word specifically, but the shepherds

knew they had. They had been told this is good

news. That is gospel.

So she had boldness in sharing the gospel.

I suspect that more than a few people looked at her and

thought, this lady's crazy. She doesn't know what she's

talking about. This is clearly not the Messiah.

This is a brand new weeks old baby, right?

Nonetheless, she wasn't deterred in sharing the truth that had

been revealed to her by the Holy Spirit.

Now the other day I read an article that said most of the

people around us, they aren't hostile to Jesus.

In the church, we tend to think that that it's an US versus them

kind of situation, right? But that is not the case.

They just haven't really given much thought to Jesus or the

church. And and without a significant

crisis in their life, they're not necessarily going to

suddenly insert Jesus and the church into their very busy and

full schedules. But this article said that all

it takes just engaging them grow that relationship that that that

acquaintance turn them into an actual friend, start on this

path of this journey of engaging with them and having spiritual

conversations with them. An article said that it may take

some time. It's a journey.

It's not a one time, Hey, let's meet for coffee and get you

saved kind of thing. That's that's not how it works

in these situations. But that as you talk about these

things, it may be slow, but they'll get there.

And when they get there, they will reorient their lives around

Jesus Christ. They begin to understand the

need to have him in their life. A very simple step.

This time of year, as I mentioned in the announcements,

it's Christmas Eve. People plan to be in God's

house. People who are never in God's

house, I will say 50 Sundays out of the year, they find

themselves in God's house twice a year, Christmas Eve and

Easter. We call them, of course,

creasters. Was that new for some of you?

So invite people for Christmas Eve.

Let's pack out this place so that they can hear the gospel.

So we've seen Anna's unwavering faith.

We've seen her boldness in in sharing the gospel.

And that brings us to the final point, thankfulness.

I love Anna's spirit of gratitude in this moment.

She could have easily missed this.

Think just thinking to herself, oh there's someone else who's

who's come to the temple to make the necessary sacrifices for for

purification. Think about this moment is when

the baby is 40 years old being presented at the temple so so

that Mary can be purified. This happens all the time.

She's seen this happen so many times in her 84 years of life,

but this time she has the eyes to see this one's different.

This is not like all those other hundreds of times that she'd

seen. This was a normal, common

occurrence, but God moved in her for her to be able to see what

was happening right in front of her.

This posture in our lives is so important.

Though it's not officially listed as a fruit of the Spirit,

it's an important character quality for the Christian to

portray gratefulness. Scripture, of course, repeatedly

calls God's followers to give thanks to Him.

And when I think of the problems associated though with with a

lack of thankfulness, my mind goes to a most peculiar place.

Romans chapter 1. If you know Romans one, your

Romans 1 · chapter mention

leg, hold up, where are we going?

This just went sideways, but hang with me for a moment.

Romans chapter 1, verses 20 through 22, you'll find there on

Romans 1:20–22

the screen reads For his invisible attributes, namely his

eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever

since the creation of the world in the things that have been

made. So they are without excuse.

And that is to say that people don't have an excuse for not

wanting to know God because he has revealed himself to them.

So then the next slide says, for although they knew God, they did

not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but instead they

became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were

darkened, claiming to be wise. They became fools.

This foolish thinking caused them to think they were so smart

and wise and had everything figured out.

Have you seen media lately? Have you seen the Tik Toks, the

Instagrams, the Reels, all the things?

I think we're seeing that today. People think they have

everything figured out when in reality their hearts have been

darkened. So God gave them up to the lusts

of their hearts, their dishonorable passions and

corrupted thinking that open the door for them to do all sorts of

vile things that should not be done.

All manner of behaviour is on the table with this type of

life. And where did the downward

spiral begin? It all started because they

didn't give thanks to God. They failed to acknowledge God

and give thanks to Him. The beginning of corruption

begins with a lack of gratitude. It was an inability to see the

blessings that were in front of them, to see the person, God,

who had revealed himself to them.

He was the source of it all. Anna recognized that God was

moving. In this seemingly mundane

moment. She'd been diligent to place

herself in the path of hearing from God so when he moved, she

could see it. She she took note of it.

She gave thanks for it, and she didn't let fear hold her back

from proclaiming that God's salvation had come to His

people. That's Anna.

You may not feel like Anna, though.

You might feel overlooked, devalued, or even marginalized.

But God calls each and every one of us to remain faithful to Him,

even when it feels pointless, like we're unseen and nobody

cares. And that's where He'll meet us

and where we will see Him work. His love and redemption are for

all. No matter how far away from Him

you might be or or how marginalized you might feel at

the moment, you have value. God loves you, has a purpose and

calling for you, and He wants to use you.

Let's bow our heads and close our eyes.

Father God, we thank you for including three verses, 3 verses

in scripture. Otherwise we wouldn't know who

Anna was and she has much to teach us.

So we thank you for including her story, her her interaction

with with the baby Jesus. Thank you for her example of

unwavering faith. She was rooted and grounded in

her faith, which enabled her to see who Jesus was, that he was

the Messiah, the one to bring redemption to the people.

Thank you for her boldness and sharing the gospel.

May we have that boldness as well.

And we're grateful for the thankfulness that she displayed.

This moment might not have significantly altered her life,

but she knew that it would change history and she was

thankful. So God, may we live like Anna,

with unwavering faith, boldness and sharing and with grateful

hearts. It's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen.