Every Christmas, we sing a song that says,
Joy to the World,
The Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King.
Let every heart prepare him room.
And in this passage, we see a woman who did just that. She prepared her heart to receive the King.
Her name was Anna, and she was a prophetess. She suffered tragedy when she was very young. After just 7 years of marriage, her husband died.
I don’t know this for certain, but it’s possible that she was childless. The text seems to imply that right after her husband died, she went to live in the temple and dedicated her life to worship, fasting and prayer.
If so, she was a remarkable woman. It would have been very easy for her to become bitter. To ask God why. Certainly to ask why he took her husband from her. And if she had no children, to question why she had been barren during those 7 years she had been married.
(Remember that this was considered shameful back in those days).
But instead of her tragedy driving her away from God, it drove her to God. And because of this, it gave her a heart that was prepared for meeting the King.
Indeed, she was one of the few who recognized him for who he was. Not only that, her joy was such that she had to tell those around about what she had found.
How about you? Do you have a heart prepared for the King? Do you have a heart that’s seeking God daily?
I’m not saying that you have to be like this woman spending every waking hour in worship, prayer, and fasting. But do you take the time getting to know him on a daily basis.
Or do you let the busyness of life, the worries of this world, and the hardships that you go through to drive you away from him?
So many people in Jesus’ time were that way, and because of that, they ended up crucifying the very Messiah they said they were seeking.
And if we fail to seek God daily, we will very likely miss seeing him in our lives, and the things he’s trying to accomplish.
Christmas may be over, but let us prepare room for God in our hearts every day, spending time with him, and drawing close to him.
For only when we do so, will we find the joy that Jesus came to bring.
Moment to Moment (Bible blog) 