URC Daily Devotion 30 December 2025

St Luke 2: 36 – 38

There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage,  then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day.  At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Reflection 

Anna is the last of the older people in Luke’s story ( Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna) who serve as transitions to the new covenant.  Anna, perhaps a little eccentric: she worships night and day and practises fasting and prayer, she is well known in the Temple, and now she comes forward and starts speaking to whoever is around.  In her devotion to God she is centred on him, hears his word and speaks it to others: she is the only prophetess named in the New Testament.  She links the child Jesus to the redemption of Jerusalem, thanking God that this is the beginning of the end of Roman oppression and a return to the rule of God and his Messiah.  Although she does not know how the story will be played out, she is full of praise as she trusts in God.

It appears that Anna’s lifestyle invigorates her: she’s mobile, articulate, alert and spiritually aware, and she finds her place in Biblical history as Luke feels she is worth remembering.  Is she providing us with a Biblical model for ageing, an older wise woman, active in a way that is unexpected, not staying at home and giving up?  She ends Luke’s Nativity narrative, pointing forward to what is to come.

Anna is not an important person, but she is sensitive to God’s voice through years of devotion to him, and available when called to act.  Most of us are not important either, but we are called to play our part: God has a role for each of us.

Christmas is a time that we can either become consumed by the traditions of the season or slow down and meditate on the Lord whose coming we celebrate. May you, like Anna, be a holy person who is better at listening to the Lord than any other pursuit.

Prayer

Father, help us slow down and listen to you. In the coming year help us, like Anna, to value the time we spend in your presence. To value the time we spend in prayer. And to listen to your leading. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.