Luke 2:1-51

This rather long section is so familiar that we can easily lose some of the more interesting and significant details. We could be ‘throwing out the baby in the bathwater’ as it were.

So here are some of my observations which you may want to ponder.

If Jesus had been born in a castle or a palace or a temple or a church, would the shepherds have been as anxious to leave their ‘flock watching’ to go and see the baby?

Mary did not have the same hassle as her cousin Elizabeth over the naming of her child. She followed what the angel had revealed to her when they met ‘at the well’.

Simeon is one person I would like to interview in heaven. He seems to have been such a great model to follow in one’s faith and witness of the God-expected life. Yet here is this wonderful holy human being telling these new parents, after singing this marvellous song of praise, that their child would be responsible for ‘destruction and salvation’ of people. The latter, yes, but destruction … what parent wants to hear that about their infant? And yet, when we snuggle our infants in our arms to bring them security and comfort, we never know what the future will be.

Anna is another person I would like to meet in heaven. I feel I have met others like Anna on my journey… people who have served God through their faith and witness. I think of one in particular whose faith was as real to her as the food she consumed to sustain her body. Her dedication to the Church never wavers and she is always there doing what needs to be done and caring for what needs to be cared for .. even when illness seems almost too much or her to bear. She is my Anna of 2008 (and many years before).

I would like to be inside the heads of those teachers as they listened to this 12 year old boy waxing eloquently with them about faith, tradition and God. Some, no doubt were impressed, but others were relieved when the parents came to take the smart aleck home. Afterwards the thinking ones must have pondered in their minds what he had said.

Like his description of John, Luke allows Jesus to grow up in a sentence filled with potential.. ‘Jesus grew in body and wisdom, gaining favour with God and people’.

Question – How does the last sentence – growing in body and wisdom, gaining favour with God and people – resonate with where you are in your life?

Tomorrow's reading: Luke 3:1-20

(Today's post submitted by guest writer, Rev. Hollis Hiscock.)