Thought for the Month – February
February is coming, and in many churches it opens (on 2nd) with a lovely celebration called Candlemas. The event has a back story in older winter festivals and weather lore, but came to be called Candlemas because candles are lit in it, representing those that used to be brought to church for blessing during the final weeks of winter. Making it possible to use the dark hours for craftwork, and lifting the spirits.
Candlemas is also the time when people remember the story of Mary and Joseph bringing Jesus to the Temple, 40 days after his birth, and the thing that has drawn my attention to it this year is the way that the visit to the Temple introduces two completely new and intriguing characters right at the end of the Christmas Story (Luke 2:22-40).
Both characters were (appropriately) old people. One is Simeon, an aged Temple priest, and the other, Anna, a childless widow (aged at least 84), who had served and prayed in the Temple for most of her life.
Simeon was so delighted to encounter the baby Jesus that it made him feel ready to die! He created a wonderful song about the encounter which is still used by millions of Christians in evening prayers. Anna – who wasn’t usually seen in public – came out at the moment the baby was being presented, and was equally thrilled, and started speaking out loud to people about their hope for the future.
This story is beautiful in the way it draws us in, and invites us, even now, to throw off any temptation to be afraid of what is happening in the world, and to keep on celebrating the important things in life. Things like being part of a wider ‘family’… and the presence of a baby. Things like the coming of more light, and the gift of hope.
Lisa Battye blogs 