Advent Reader: The Faithful Watcher in the Temple

Luke 2:36-40

In the quiet corners of the Jerusalem temple, while priests hurried with sacrifices and crowds pressed in with prayers, there stood an old woman. Her name was Anna. Scripture tells us she was a prophetess. Widowed for 60 years, she never remarried. Instead, through those long years, she “did not depart from the temple, worshipping with fasting and prayer night and day”.

Decades of morning praises and evening prayers. Decades of hungering and thirsting for God. Decades of waiting.

And then, one seemingly ordinary day, a young couple came carrying a forty-day-old baby. To most eyes, just another family fulfilling the Law. To Anna, the promised Messiah.

“At that very hour” she came up and began to give thanks to God and to speak of the child “to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem”. After all those years of watching, she recognised Him instantly. Her long vigil ended not with disappointment, but with joy overflowing into testimony.

We can learn 3 lessons from Anna's cameo appearance. For 60 years, no crowds had followed her. The priest probably ignored her. Yet heaven noticed. Our private, quiet devotions - early mornings with the Bible, tears shed in secret, small acts of obedience - are never wasted. Faithfulness in the hidden years matters.

Anna’s decades of worship trained her eyes to spot the Messiah in a baby’s face. The longer we linger in God’s presence, the quicker we recognise His voice, His leading, His answers - even when they come wrapped in unexpected packaging. Godly waiting sharpens spiritual insight.

Anna didn’t keep the good news to herself. She told everyone who shared her hope. When we truly see Jesus, silence is not an option. Jesus encounters lead to witness.

Amen.