Several people told me this week that Simeon and Anna meant a lot to them.

Out of all the people in the bible, why do Simeon and Anna stand out? What sorts of things come to your mind? Why do people like them? [ASK]

For me, I think it’s because they have hope and they are forward looking. They’re able to see what all of the other people at the temple miss in this little baby.

I think I miss quite a bit in life. I often miss the places for joy, for celebration, for hope, because other things get in the way. Sometimes it’s other bad things that distract me, sometimes it’s busyness. But I think the reason I miss joy and celebration many times is because it doesn’t meet my expectations of what joy and celebration should be.

That’s why I like Simeon and Anna so much.

Think about it: Simeon’s talking about “at last!” and “finally!” and “this is going to change our world and our fortunes!”…and he’s holding an 8 day old baby that can only eat, grunt, and fill his loincloth.

For all the years that Simeon has been waiting for the salvation of Israel, I doubt even one minute was spent picturing a baby. Anna was probably laughed at by some as a crazy old woman for attaching the words “king” and “deliverer” to a baby.

Can you think of people you know like Anna and Simeon? People who seem able to look at the world, and see beyond what is actually there, people who see the possibilities instead of the liabilities? Can you think of people who don’t let their own expectations cloud their vision to what God is actually doing? People who have the ability to patiently hope for God to do a long-term work that will bring about our freedom and our longing?

I don’t think very many of us are really good at this. But I think if we become more that way, it will make it easier to celebrate what God is doing in the world.

How can we celebrate what God is doing, while at the same time still yearning for something more in our lives?

Because I think we need both. I think Simeon and Anna model both.

Celebration is simply hollow if it doesn’t acknowledge the things that are broken and wrong in the world. Simeon certainly isn’t just a blind encourager, a Pollyanna with rose-colored glasses. He knows that many will reject Jesus. He knows the road is not going to be easy for Mary, that a sword will pierce her own soul. Both Anna and Simeon know that the Roman occupation means that Israel needs delivering. Life is not as it should be. They are rightly longing for something more.

So God sends a baby to a poor couple from Nazareth. This is a good idea? The offering that Joseph and Mary bring to the temple is a sign of their poverty, and rather than a handsome, tall leader of men like Saul long ago, God sends a baby.

Knowing that their people needed rescuing, longing for God to rescue everyone, Anna and Simeon still are able to see baby Jesus and celebrate!

This woman and man are able to look at the real world, long for change, and still rejoice and celebrate when God’s plan takes a strange twist.

I wonder…is this ability to see and celebrate God’s work a personality thing, or is it something we can learn?

Can we learn how to hope? Can we learn how to celebrate? If I were to answer with a simple “yes”, well, then it might make some people who are struggling to celebrate feel like I was telling them that they were the problem. But if I were to answer with a simple “no”, well, then what’s the point of even talking about it? Either I’m a person who celebrates, or I’m not. Either I enjoy Christmas, or I don’t. Either I see God at work and have hope that God’s plans will not fail, or I don’t.

It’s a difficult question…so I’ll chicken out and let John Ortberg be the one to answer the hard question! Here’s from Ortberg’s book called, The Life You’ve Always Wanted:

“You can become a joyful person. With God’s help, it really is possible. The biblical writers would not command it if it were not so. But joyfulness is a learned skill. You must take responsibility for your joy. Not your friend, not your parent, not your spouse, no you kids, not your boss–your joy is your responsibility. For some of us, this does not come easily. You may be joy-impaired. You will have to fight for it. But it can be done.”

Sometimes joy and playfulness just ooze out of me.

Sometimes playing with my kids or singing in the shower or laughing out loud is the easiest thing in the world. And other times, I definitely relate to what Ortberg calls being “joy-impaired” and having to “fight for it.”

Last weekend was a “fight for it” time for me, and I didn’t really feel like fighting. Monday, I was literally depressed thinking about the difficulty of talking today about celebrating.

So I started thinking about a different way to tell the story of Simeon that would highlight what’s so amazing about him. When I get in those moods where I’m struggling to find hope and joy, it’s usually because I’m throwing a little bit of a pity party. I’m seeing all the things I do for others that never get recognized and noticed, all the ways I serve God and it seems to get completely ignored by him.

I put that me–the me of this past Monday morning, the me that is joy-impaired–I put that me into Simeon’s experience, and the story came out quite differently.

“Doesn’t God see? Doesn’t God remember? I have been faithfully praying and waiting for God to act all these years when no one else has been so faithful. I’ve been watching our people suffer, and each day, I’ve been clinging to God’s promise that I would see his salvation before I died.

“Well, don’t you remember that, God? Cause I’m getting pretty old here, and nothing’s happening! You better get a move on, here!

“So this morning, I’m actually sleeping. You know, I’m old, I don’t sleep so good, but I’m actually sleeping…and the Spirit has to go and wake me up. I guess so I can pray some more, do some MORE stuff for God. The Spirit says I’m supposed to come down here to the temple, and I sigh and do it. I’m always the only one doing what God wants.

“I’m just ready to be done…done with praying, done with work, done with the stress. I’m ready to see God’s plan, and then pack it in. I mean, how much more can I do?

“And then the Spirit points me to a baby. Ridiculous. God, I’m old. OLD! I’m tired. We need a king, or at least a warrior. I don’t have time to wait for a baby to grow up. I need you to act now! What, you want me to celebrate this? You gotta be kidding!”

Sometimes I think we all wish we could have been present in the time when Jesus was on the earth in the flesh, because it would make believing easier.

I’m not so sure that’s true. I think many of us would still have trouble believing in God, would still struggle to see God’s plan at work.

But when I thought about the Monday-me in Simeon’s shoes, I realized how amazing the real Simeon was.

What Simeon saw, and what makes Christmas worth celebrating, is that God was sending the whole experience of being human on a new trajectory. God was coming near to us so that we can be forever near to him. The birth of Jesus was the beginning of a new ending….and the new ending, the place where God is taking us and the world is worth celebrating!

I think we need to cultivate a different way of seeing the world. When a baby takes her first steps, we don’t frown about how that will never get her on the track team. No, we cheer and smile ourselves silly praising that first little step that doesn’t really accomplish a thing, because we know it shows that more is coming.

We often marvel at the gift that babies are to us as parents…we remember in their fragile condition, as exhausting as they are, that they are a sign of an infinitely creative God who seems to take joy in every new creation.

Cultivating celebration is choosing to remember that when they’re teenagers.

It’s true for a lot of things, actually. We’re much more likely to be grateful for the gift of our job when we talk with someone unemployed than when a huge project is due. We’re much more likely to thank God when we move into our first home then when your family of five is crammed into 2 bedrooms.

But here’s the truth: our lives, our families, our jobs, our church, our friends, the world we live in are ALL gifts from God. And as frustrating as all of those things can be at times, the miracle of the first Christmas is that God not only created it all, he refuses to stay far off and leave us on our own. He’s joined our world forever, in order to give us and the world a future and a hope.

Those who follow Jesus are going to be with God forever!

Being grateful for our future hope, and grateful for the past gifts God has given, helps us to celebrate in the now. Choosing to celebrate now, in whatever circumstances we are in, is a choice to acknowledge that we believe God is at work in us and in the world. Like Anna. Like Simeon. John Ortberg says it this way:

“People who want to pursue joy especially need to practice the discipline of celebration. This is a primary reason that we see much emphasis placed on feast days in the Old Testament…Celebration generally involves activities that bring pleasure–gathering with people we love, eating and drinking, singing and dancing. Spiritual celebration means doing them while reflecting on the wonderful God who has given us such wonderful gifts.”

Christmas is a feast of the Christian church!

Let’s gather with the people we love, eat and drink and sing and dance and tell stories and laugh, all the while thanking the wonderful God who has given us such wonderful gifts!