One of my favorite men in the Bible is Simeon, mentioned just very briefly in Luke chapter 2. I’m not sure what first caught my heart about ol’ Simeon. Maybe it was his enduring faith even into “the twilight of his life”. God had uniquely given him the grace and infilling of the Holy Spirit, and he knew that he would live to see the fulfillment of God’ promise: the Messiah. And then when he finally did lay eyes on Jesus, he couldn’t help himself – Luke 2 says that Simeon took the child in his arms and blessed God. (Parents, when you’re holding your first born newborn baby, how do you feel about a stranger coming up and taking your baby into his arms?)
Anyway, what struck me for the first time today, as I was reflecting on the Nativity story, and also thinking about our current adoption journey – is that when Simeon saw Jesus, God’s promise had already been fulfilled at least eight day earlier – and Simeon probably didn’t know of Jesus’ birth on the day of his birth. The actual day of Jesus’ birth was probably just another day of walking by faith for Simeon. And the eight days following were also just ordinary days of walking by faith for Simeon.
Every day since Dave and I declared aloud that we are pursuing a third adoption, and that we believe God is leading us to trust Him and pursue an adoption from Africa, has been just another ordinary day of walking by faith. We don’t know if the child destined to be in our family has already been born. We don’t know where or when the money will be here to make it all possible.
Simeon saw the realization of his long awaited dream eight days after it already happened. For us it might be eight months, or longer.
And then the moment of truth: baby Jesus enters the temple with his parents. Simeon was excited – no wonder he grabbed that baby right out of Mary and Joseph’s arms and praised God!
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