The right time

Luke 2:22-40

          Now is probably not the time to expect any kind of grand  treatise or great reflection from me since it is now the time to deal with a cold that seems to have blossomed overnight.

           From the very first line of todays passage, it speaks of the right time, the time has come, or something will happen at a specified time. We  know about the right time for things. Whether it's as simple as waiting for something to ripen (in which case it the right time to eat it!) or to the right time to meet the love of your life everything has it's right time. If you eat the friuit before it ripens it won't be quite right will it? I've spoken of how my husband and I know that had we met years earlier it would not have been the right time. We were not ready for each other in many ways. Now is our time and I praise God and give thanks every single day.

          I hate to limit my examples to two simple thoughts but I hope you get the idea. We need to remember also that even in waiting for the right time for something, anything, we need to do our best to hasten the events. From putting a banana in a brown bag, to classes to hone or finer traits to therapy to address our less finer traits, we need to do what is in our capacity to do.

          For my case, I am not going to sit here with clogged sinuses waiting for the time it will go away on it's own. Soup is already on the stove and meds are in the cupboard.

          We always need to be patient and we also need to do what we are capable of doing to help things along. 

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord’), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons.’

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,
‘Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.’

And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.