“In Jerusalem, there was a man named Simeon. He was a good and godly man. He was waiting for God’s promise to Israel to come true, and the Holy Spirit was with him. The Spirit had told Simeon that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.”
That’s in Luke Chapter Two, and it got me thinking. What if you didn’t know the day of the year Christmas was going to come?
In the video we just watched, this super-cute kid is anxiously waiting for Christmas morning. He knows it’s a day of massive importance – we find out why at the very end there when he busts out that present of his own – but anyway, he is brimming with anticipation. He just can’t wait. But you know what the kid had going for him? A calendar. He knew that he just had to make it to December 25th – then the day would be here and the wait would be over.
Now, as cute as he is, this kid really only had the one present to worry about. Imagine being you – yourself – and not knowing what day of the year Christmas would be. Like, what if it was a totally random day of the year every year, and you didn’t find out until that morning? Wouldn’t that be a mess? You’d have to constantly be on your guard, with presents for loved ones just waiting somewhere out of sight. You’d have to keep a turkey thawed and ready to go. You’d have to be prepared to engage in one of the most important days of the year at the drop of a hat. It would be the worst. And to an extent, that’s kind of what Simeon went through.
Luke writes that the Holy Spirit had told Simeon that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. And in the grand scheme of things, that’s something that must have felt incredibly imminent. The Jews had been waiting for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. To hear that it’s coming out in your lifetime is a huge deal. For one thing, there’s that sense of “He’s finally here. It’s finally happened”. But to make things even better, Simeon learns that he’s going to get to see the Messiah. He’s going to be one of the first people ever to see the King.
The movie trailer for “Avengers 4” came out recently, and I was dying to see it. I’m not kidding – pretty much every day in November I would Google it to see if the trailer had come out yet. The directors had said that it was coming, but they wouldn’t say when. And people had so many predictions about when it was going to happen. It was supposed to come out mid-November. Then late November. Then the last weekend of November. Then it became December 1st, then maybe last Wednesday...I was dying. They hadn’t even announced the name of the movie yet. I knew that a trailer was coming – but I didn’t know when it was going to come.
I imagine that’s what Simeon went through for a while. Every morning thinking “Maybe today’s the day”. Every Sunday thinking “Maybe it’s this week. I can wait till Friday, I think.” Every first of the month thinking “Yeah, this month makes more sense. It’s definitely gonna be this month.” He probably felt like that kid in the video – lots of excitement, and nothing to do with it.
Then came that fateful day. For the kid in the video, it was Christmas morning. For me, it was last Friday when the trailer finally came out. For Simeon, well, listen to what the next verse says.
“The Spirit led Simeon into the temple courtyard, where Jesus’ parents brought the child in.”
We don’t know how long Simeon had to wait. We don’t know where he was or what he was doing that day. We don’t know how old Simeon was at this point. All we know for sure is that it was the Spirit that led Simeon to the temple. You know what that tells me? It tells me that Simeon was actively waiting.
There’s a difference, right? Between passive and active waiting. I passively wait for the bus – I stand there and fiddle on my phone or listen to music or something. I don’t really even think about it until it pulls up right in front of me. But I actively waited for this Avengers trailer. I was constantly checking up on it, looking to see if anyone had heard any rumours with valuable information. On Friday morning, I checked right when I woke up, and then again right before I left for class, and then again once I got into class. I was listening for news. And that’s what I believe Simeon was doing. I believe that part of the reason that Simeon felt the Spirit move was because he was actively looking for the Spirit’s voice. Simeon wasn’t the kind of guy to say, “Ah, it’ll happen when it happens.” I think he was ready to go, every minute, every day. It’s like sitting staring at your phone, waiting for it to ring. You’re fully committed to this thing.
And man, when I finally saw that trailer, I saw it within twenty minutes of it being released. I was one of the first – well, one of the first hundred thousand, but still – I was one of the first people to see it. And I had that privilege because I was actively waiting. I cared about this thing so much that it was at the forefront of my mind. If I hadn’t cared about it, I might not have seen the trailer until much later – maybe not even at all.
I believe that God loves you an incredible amount, and that he has an amazing plan for your life. And the Bible is packed with promises that God’s made to you. My question – to myself as well as to you – is how are we waiting for those promises to be fulfilled? God has promised strength to the weary. Are we just assuming that that strength is going to come around sooner or later, or are we actively looking for it? God has promised to give those who delight in Him the desires of their hearts. Should we just sit quietly and wait for those desires to drop into our laps, or should we be constantly at the ready, checking in to see how God is moving us towards them? Jesus said He’s coming again soon – this is the big one. Are we waiting for him like we wait for the bus, with headphones in and the occasional look-around to see if he’s close yet? Or are we waiting for him like that kid – like Simeon – with eager anticipation and a constant listening to the Holy Spirit?
I need to live like Simeon. I need to live like I believe that I’m going to see the promises of God fulfilled in my lifetime. Because when I start living that way, I might start hearing the Spirit lead me somewhere that could be life-changing.
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