by Elizabeth Glanville, PhD.
“Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. 37Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four.* She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. 38She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.” Luke 2:36-28, NLT
According to the law of Moses, a widow would be given to her husband’s brother or another close relative for care and protection (see Deuteronomy 25:5-10). If she were older, she would be supported by her grown children. But Anna had none of these options. She found protection in the Temple, where she was sustained by prayer and worship. God protected her and fulfilled her longing to see the promised Savior, Jesus. Luke refers to Anna as “a prophet,” which likely reflects her knowledge of God and his will for his people, especially as she announces the presence of the child who would “rescue Jerusalem” (Luke 2:36, 38).
Can you imagine what it would have been like to serve God in his Temple your whole life, and then finally meet the Savior everyone was waiting for? Anna’s prayers after that meeting might have sounded like this:
I saw him this morning . . . the one you, God, promised, our Savior. Oh, how his face glowed with your glory. You have heard my prayers. Hope rises in my heart. Now I can rest in peace in your presence. Take me home to be with you, for I am an old woman of eighty-four years.
Oh, God, I thank you and praise your name. You have been like a husband to me these past sixty years, after losing my beloved after only seven years and having no children to support me. You have protected me, provided for me, and encouraged me. You gave me purpose when I was devastated and alone. Now I see the fruit of being committed to you. My heart fills to overflowing.
As a widow for almost ten years, I have experienced God’s faithfulness. He has restored joy and given me mission and teaching opportunities beyond what I ever expected. While there have been times of pain and challenge, I have a deep, centering peace and joy that only comes from knowing God the Father and the Lord Jesus, much like Anna.
When have you experienced loss yet found strength and new direction from God? How has the Lord been like a husband or family to you, calling you closer? If you are experiencing pain, call out to God, spend time in his presence, and let him love you.
This was taken from the Every Woman’s Bible, Journaling Edition. This Bible doesn’t shy away from the questions women bring to the Bible. In these pages, more than one hundred women around the world explore the heartfelt needs, gritty challenges, and uncommon faithfulness of women throughout history. Now with the added benefit of a wide-ruled margin. Offering ample space for notes, reflections, and prayers.
The Son of God, as “very God” (to quote the Nicene Creed), arrived on this earth as a man. He came to the mountains He created. He faced the rivers with their rushing currents. He crossed the valleys. He gazed upon the sea. He walked beneath the skies and the stars and the moon and the sun. But the tragedy of all tragedies is this: “He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him” (John 1:10). The world didn’t recognize the One who had created it. In other words, “He came to his own people, and even they rejected him” (John 1:11).
We all know the Christmas story: The Creator came to our planet as a baby, but there was no room at the inn for the One who had created the rocks from which that inn was made. There was no welcome mat for Christ. Isn’t it remarkable that the One who is coequal, coeternal, and coexistent with the Father and the Spirit—the One who divinely decreed the events that would run their course on this earth in perfect timing with His profound plan—could come to the earth and be beaten and spit upon, have spikes driven through His hands and feet, be hung on a cross, and be cursed until He died? Even after being raised from the dead, He is still denied, rejected, and refused some twenty centuries later. There is still no room for the Savior.
From the vanishing point of the past to the vanishing point of the future, Jesus Christ remains in His nature and His attributes very God. But Christ, in order that human beings might be able to see what God is like in tangible form, became a human for all eternity future. This introduction to the Gospel of John concludes, “No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us” (John 1:18).
These contrasts are a foretaste of things to come. In Jesus, the God of Israel and Lord of all the earth has come to visit and to save his people. The Divine One reaches down to meet them where they are. Throughout Luke’s Gospel, Jesus will show special concern for the lowly, the poor, the outcast, and sinners. These are the ones he has come to
save because they recognize their need for him. They receive the message of salvation with joy and rejoicing.
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At this point, God sent a messenger to Joseph to confirm Mary’s story and open another way of obedience for Joseph—to take Mary as his wife. Joseph obeyed God, married Mary, and honored her virginity until after the baby was born. Joseph’s role as guardian of God’s Son and of Mary is clearly seen in his response to the dream in which the angel of the Lord instructed him to flee to Egypt. Joseph immediately obeyed, leading his family to Egypt in order to escape from Herod and later returning to settle in Nazareth instead of going back to Bethlehem.
Mary, the wife of Joseph, was the virgin mother of Jesus. Luke tells us that as a young girl in Nazareth, Mary was betrothed to Joseph, a local carpenter. Before the marriage took place, an angel announced to her that she would become pregnant by the power of God’s Spirit and give birth to the Son of God (1:26‑35). Mary responded to this extraordinary message in simple faith, humbly submitting herself to God’s will (1:38, 46‑55). Shortly thereafter, the message was confirmed by her relative Elizabeth, who spoke of Mary as the most blessed of all women (1:39‑45). Mary’s miraculous bearing of the Son of God was viewed as a fulfillment of prophecy (Isa 7:14).
