Have a Simeon Christmas

Simeon and Anna

What follows may look, to start with, suspiciously like a pity party. I understand why you might think that, since I haven’t been above such fishing expeditions in the past. But I’m going to do my level best to avoid “poor me” games here. I mean to address, not my own situation, but that of others.

Lindsay Stallones over at Evangelical Outpost has posted a meditation pretty much guaranteed to bring us all down. In We Need a Darker Christmas, she notes that the true Christmas story is not a merry and bright Claymation special:

There are people all around us who haven’t learned to pretend as well as we have.  They are the artists and poets.  They can’t look away from what we refuse to look at, the overwhelming awfulness of this existence.  Their words are hard to hear, and they threaten our carefully constructed worlds of nice and happy.  We want to sing “I’ll be home for Christmas” with Bing Crosby and ignore the millions who will mourn when loved ones don’t come home this year.  We want to watch Disney’s latest nature adventure with anthropomorphized penguins, but don’t want to think about the fact that the polar bear cubs will starve to death if they don’t eat the cute seal pups.  We love to quote John the Baptist when he proclaims the coming of Christ, but we end the story long before his grisly, senseless death.  We wrap ourselves in the happy part of the story and try to ignore the rest.

It’s a well-reasoned piece. It reminded me especially that, in spite of constant appeals, in sermons and advertisements, to the joys of gathering with family and friends for the holidays, more people every year (due to societal change, personal choice, and plain misadventure) actually spend the holiday alone, longing for the Bedford Falls Christmas they may or may not remember from their own childhoods.

I am, in fact, one of those people this year. This isn’t unusual for me. My extended family will be gathering on a later date, and I have no nuclear family of my own. No doubt there are people I know who’d be happy to invite me to join their own celebrations, but honestly I’d rather they didn’t. I suffer from a shyness disorder that makes gatherings including strangers (or even certain acquaintances) extremely stressful. In Dickensian terms, given the choice between attending Nephew Fred’s party and sharing the punch with a room full of people, most of whom I’ve never met before, and huddling in my chamber in the dark, next to the fire, eating my solitary bowl of gruel, I’d opt for the gruel most nights.

But it occurs to me that my membership in this burgeoning demographic of Christmas solitaries qualifies me, perhaps, to speak words of comfort to others of my tribe.

So this is for you, Misfit Toy, bench-sitter at the Reindeer Games. Not many writers will address you this season, but I will.

When I go to the gospels and look for a lonely person in the biblical Christmas story, someone people like us can identify with, I find… nothing much. Joseph and Mary were away from home, but they had each other, and it was Joseph’s ancestral town, so there were likely relatives (there’s some evidence that the manger may have actually been located in a sort of multi-purpose room, adaptable for sheltering animals or guests as the need arose, attached to the house of a relation). The shepherds seem to have been gathered in a group when the angels appeared to them. The Wise Men were a company of unspecified number, and probably showed up months later anyway.

But wait. There’s more to the story. In the very same chapter in which Luke penned his peerless account of the nativity (Luke 2, if you didn’t learn it in Sunday School), you can read on and find the story of what happened just eight days later, when Joseph and Mary observed the Law by taking the Baby to nearby Jerusalem, to have him circumcised. There we read of two apparently solitary people who immediately recognized the promised Messiah, and found complete spiritual fulfillment in Him.

“Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”

We traditionally think of Simeon as an old man, although the text doesn’t actually say that. I think it’s a fair surmise, though, since his response suggests he’d been waiting for just one thing, and was otherwise ready to die:

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,

you now dismiss your servant in peace.

For my eyes have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared before the sight of all people,

a light for revelation to the Gentiles

and for the glory of your people Israel.”

We are told, further, of a woman named Anna, who is specifically described as “very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.”

What we have here is a man, probably old, who had been waiting a long time for something that never seemed to show up.

And we have a woman who’d been a widow for more than forty years.

These are my kind of people.

They weren’t there for the party at the stable. They had to wait a few days. For some reason, God doesn’t give everyone their Christmas gifts at once. Some people have to wait a while. He doesn’t explain why.

But the gift comes, according to His schedule, not ours. If you’re not a shepherd or a wise man, you may be a Simeon or an Anna.

They thought it was worth the wait. Don’t give up.

And merry Christmas.

5 thoughts on “Have a Simeon Christmas”

  1. I must take issue with Lindsay. Not everyone who sings, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”, etc… or those of us who prefer good cheer and praising/worshiping the Lord on His “birthday” are wearing blinders.

    I believe most folks, (who aren’t part of the “drinky all day for Santa set), are aware of what is going on around them. We all know this is a time for increased suicides. I pity them, but some folks hide from the truth because they can’t handle it. Hiding can be self-preservation, not just selfish avoidance.

    In my church, there are many of us inviting alone singles, alone marrieds, old folks, alone soldiers, etc… for a fun Christmas day. I have a son and two nephews in the military, my son currently in harm’s way. I am especially sensitive to military family’s needs this season.

    We embrace them.

    My church even has a special group of folks who pray just for soldiers in our area every day and takes them or their families in on Christmas….or brings them food or helps them in needy times.

    No, unless you are one of those high-life folks who normally lift your nose above the crowd, I believe Christmas time is when real people put their heads and hearts together and find out what they can do for others.

    In our area we have a family with two members on death row for killing some policemen. We reach out to all these families.

    I have two friends who have sons in prison on murder and kidnapping. How could I ignore these families? We’ve been friends for over 25 years!

    Such stories are heard all over the world… I could relate many more….as you all could.

    I used to be terribly shy…NO OFFENSE HERE!!!!

    I stayed at home with my Pepsi and good wood fire in the stove and a good book or DVD…. But, the Lord brought me out and showed me a much better way.

    If you are out there giving someone a part of you… the shyness eventually leaves and is replaced with the Joy of the Lord. Your sense of worth and your sense of God increases dramatically. I haven’t yet learned how to work with the winos under the bridge yet… some of my friends can. But, so far, I believe what my wife and I and our church do now is just as valuable.

    And as for claymation; well what’s wrong with sending some happy brightness into someone’s life…that someone might just need some right now. Maybe that person’s life is so miserable he needs a little happy fantasy to keep the wolves away.

    I have a friend who’s wife of 40 years died this year. This will be his first Christmas without her. My friend and his wife have touched many many people in their time. Does Lindsay Stallones think no one will remember her passing and absence? She will be missed! There will be a few more tears shed.

    But as we are all Christians in this group…. we KNOW for certain she is in a much better place than we are!! So, we celebrate. We embrace God’s joy!! We get out of ourselves and think of others and how we might share with them. We recall the joy my friend’s wife brought to others…and we give that out to others as she would have.

    No, I think Lindsay is painting what could be a very bright picture with some very dark paint. No one would say there are no injustices in the world… I just think Lindsay is making them overly encompassing.

    Phooey on Lindsay …. This is Christmas! This is the time to celebrate Christ’s birth…you know the Kid who was God’s great gift to us so we don’t have to burn in hell if we accept that gift.

    Soon we will celebrate Easter. That’s when Jesus actually died and went to hell for us…and also went back into Heaven to make a place for us when it is our time to join Him.

    No, no way will I accept the “blackness” of this season over the Great Brightness of God’s Wonderful Gift to us! I used to live in the dark, even as a Christian… now, I much prefer to live in His light!

  2. Now that I’ve caught my breath…….

    Lars and Phil have written some very good stuff which I envy … They somehow sees the whole picture… and expresses such good thoughts in such insightful ways the build us all up.

    I believe God has gifted Lars and Phil. I’ve written some “stuff” here at BWB…but it is clap-trap compared to these guys!

    For this Christmas….Thanks so much for all your good and careful words.

  3. Thanks, Book. You know, I believe I was told by a credible source that this is not a time of increased suicides, but that January through March is. The holidays can set people off, but I think the depression sets in after them. Course, I could be wrong.

  4. Lars – thanks for remembering the solitaries. This year, I’m one of them. And I actually do wish that someone had invited me, so I don’t have to spend today alone.

    And “John Book” – thank you for standing up for the fact that Christmas is joy in the midst of all the sorrow, not a blinder to the world’s trouble.

    Take care & God bless

    Anne / WF

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.