I keep coming back to Simeon this week. Luke tells us almost nothing about him beyond this: he was righteous and devout, and he had spent however many years of his life waiting for the consolation of Israel. That’s a long obedience, with nothing to show for it most days but more waiting.

Then Mary and Joseph walk into the temple carrying an eight day old baby, the way every family did, for a law that had nothing unusual about it that morning. Simeon takes the child in his arms and says he can finally go in peace. His eyes have seen what he’d been watching for his whole life.

What strikes me is that the moment didn’t look like an answer. No sign, no crowd, just a tired young couple and their firstborn. Simeon didn’t recognize what was in front of him because it was obvious. He recognized it because he’d spent decades paying attention to small, unremarkable things, looking for God inside the ordinary instead of waiting for God to finally make it easy.

I don’t have that kind of attention built yet. I notice how much I want the clear sign before I’ll believe anything is happening. Simeon suggests the sign comes at the end of a long habit of watching closely, not as a substitute for it.

There was a widow in the temple that same day, Anna, old enough that nobody questioned why she was always there, worshiping, fasting and praying. She’d been watching that long too, and she saw it the same way he did.

What I’m asking God for this week isn’t a sign. It’s the kind of eyes that could recognize one if it showed up disguised as something this small.

Today’s Bible Study

There’s a verse in Psalm 71 that reads almost like Simeon’s own prayer, written years before he ever prayed it. The psalmist asks God not to abandon him even to old age and gray hairs, and gives the reason right alongside the request: so that he can tell the next generation what God’s power actually looks like. Simeon and Anna weren’t only waiting for themselves. Their whole long patience became something they could hand to a child they’d never met before, proof that God keeps his word, carried by two people who stayed faithful long enough to be believed.

Recommended Reading

If you’ve never prayed Night Prayer, Compline, it closes every single day with Simeon’s own words, the Nunc Dimittis, the very prayer he says in today’s passage. It’s a short, steady way to end the day the way he ended his long wait, letting it go in peace.