Along with various twitter friends, I'm taking part in the #adventbookclub organised by Pam Webster, we're reading Stephen Cottrell's Walking Backwards to Christmas. Here's my first post:
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 seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped 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.
As I was reading this, I remembered a recent conversation with my vicar, whose name is Anna, where she commented that it is her destiny to turn into her Biblical namesake - the batty old lady who is always hanging around the church. I couldn't comment about the 'batty' bit, but was thinking that being the person who is always hanging around the church doesn't seem to be a bad thing. But do we listen to the wisdom which these elders have acquired by hanging around the church, in the presence of God, for years? There seems a lot we could gain by paying attention to that openness.
This seems to connect with the definition of a prophet: I wondered if a prophet is someone who has spent so much time waiting and watching before God's face that she can see and discern things which others cannot. Hence, Anna recognises the Holy Family among the whole throng of people around the Temple, and is able to praise God for God's revelation in Jesus where others didn't see it.
At the beginning of Advent, this reminds me to spend time opening myself to God, hanging around in God's temple, just being among the busyness, and also to remember to look for God given wisdom - prophesy if you like - in unexpected places.
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