Whatsoever |
Whatsoever |
2020 has been full of waiting. The story of this year has been one of unfulfilled dreams, frustrating restrictions and entirely new experiences of waiting for ‘the end’. We are now looking towards the next year, waiting for some sort of normality to return, waiting for effective vaccines and waiting for some solution to how we are going to pay for it all. We have all learned about waiting and we all, perhaps, know a bit more about being saved. As we hear comforting, familiar Bible passages again this Christmas - stable and shepherd, star and wise men - let’s not forget two particular old people who were waiting for salvation. Their names were Anna and Simeon and we read about them in the Bible in the second chapter of Luke’s gospel, right after the account of Jesus’s birth. They were both waiting for the Messiah, the Saviour, to come to the world and had been assured by God that they would see this before they died. The years passed, their bones ached and their lives got more narrow, dusty and dim. They thought about how it may be but really didn’t have a clue. Their days in the Temple sometimes became very long and tiresome yet they determinedly trusted that what God said would happen would happen, in his own good time and in his way. Then one day a particular young mother and her husband and their newborn baby arrived at the Temple to do the customary act of dedicating their first born to God. For Simeon this was both expected and unexpected Many artists have tried to imagine this scene, but the painting that speaks most to me is by Rembrandt. He painted this at the end of his long life (it was found in his studio after he died) and the rough, hesitant, searching way he paints the image seems appropriate. He paints how to wait to be saved and how to receive salvation.
What strikes me most is the posture of waiting. I remember as a child my parents saying at Christmas - ‘close your eyes, hold out your arms' and into those arms they would place a present, a precious thing that I had so hoped for. Here, in this painting, the old man stretches out his tired arms to receive the gift. Look at the way his hands have been shown - old and gnarled yet open and receiving - a gesture of deep, confident, trusting prayer. Into those outstretched arms are placed the baby: a little head, tiny hand and dressed carefully and lovingly. Simeon receives this scrap of life, this helpless baby. This, this is what he has been waiting for. In God’s extraordinary plan, salvation for Simeon, and for us all, comes to this earth as a baby born in obscurity and destined to live a short life and suffer a terrible death. Yet, Simeon understands. He expresses this knowledge in a beautiful prayer (that prayer which has often been set to music, called the ‘Nunc Dimittis’). He knows that here in his outstretched arms is salvation and life and truth and meaning. Is it no wonder that he is shown with eyes closed? The light that this baby brings is so bright and so piercing that all he can do is worship. This Son is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15-20) In these 21st century days, as we keep on waiting, perhaps we can learn from Simeon about how to wait, how to be ready to receive, and how to recognise the unlikely, unexpected gifts that God gives and continues to give. Close your eyes, hold out your arms, here is ALL for you.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
WhatsoeverThe posts are 'postcards' on my journey through faith and art. The name 'Whatsoever' comes from Philippians 4:8 in the Bible : Categories
All
Archives
May 2024
|