Three responses to the birth of Christ

We considered three examples of how to respond to the birth of Christ.
The first was from Mary and Joseph, who demonstrate zeal for obedience despite inconvenience. They were eager to obey. They showed this by their willingness to travel to Bethlehem to be counted, by naming Jesus as they had been commanded, by taking Him to the temple at the appropriate time, and by doing everything that the law of Moses commanded.
The second example was of Simeon, who gives us the example of faith in response to Jesus’ birth, even patient long suffering faith. We read “Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; or my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”
This is a wonderful example to us of how to respond to Jesus’ birth. When Simeon saw Jesus he did not just see a baby, he saw the Lord’s salvation and he trusted and rested in that salvation, even being willing to die in that moment because he was at peace.
The third example is that of Anna, the prophetess. She shows us another wonderful example of how to respond to Jesus’ birth. We read “And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”
Mary was the servant, Simeon the man of faith, Anna is the evangelist. She’s the one who immediately upon seeing Jesus went out to tell people about him. This Christmas you may be so lucky as to receive gifts from various people, some of those gifts will be so great they are worth talking about. But no gift is more worth talking about than the gift of Jesus Christ.
Blessings this Christmas, wherever you are.