“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” Luke 2:29-32
“Did you remember this?” were the words Katie asked me as she held up a beautiful painting of Jesus being presented to Simeon in the Temple. Having JUST preached the sermon on that event just yesterday, I had to confess that I had not noticed it before. “Where did you get that?” I asked. Her response was both humbling and revealing. “Off the wall over there. Didn’t you remember?”
Being a ‘guy’ can be a rough experience, since men are COMPLETELY different than women. Which is both a good thing AND intentional. God made me different from my wife for a reason, which is OBVIOUS! That’s why I can’t even fathom the whole transgender phenomenon! Yesterday Katie spent about 2 hours decorating the front door! We’ve owned that ‘unnoticed’ print for 5+ years!
Had I ‘noticed’ the print, I could have taken it to Church and displayed it for the sermon. But hadn’t and didn’t! Katie’s artistic brain is on a whole different level than mine. Give her some crayons or markers and she can draw almost anything I ask and get a “WOW!” But that gift can easily become a burden as she likes to switch stuff around to appeal to her changing whims and tastes. Unlike me.
The story of Jesus in the arms of Simeon sheds light on God’s ultimate plan, which He has had from BEFORE the beginning of time. The term, “a Light to the Gentiles,” was actually a Title given to the promised Messiah from Isaiah 42:6 & 49:6. The word Gentile means ‘without God’ and describes the state of their non-notice of Him. When Jesus came, His objective was to turn that light ON!
When speaking to the Jews in John 8, Jesus said “I am the light of the world.” To many in His day, that description got Him noticed… in a bad way! But God, like my Katie, likes to switch things around! So in Matthew 5 Jesus went on to say “YOU are the Light of the world…” ‘YOU’ being ‘ME!’ A fact that MANY of us ‘Church-guys’ tend to forget or fail to notice, and/or DO! But Jesus never forgets!
I am SOOO glad that Katie doesn’t get tired of me enough to want to replace me. That is what Love does. Since God IS Love, His character is such that He will ALWAYS Love me, even when I fail to notice my own failures, or DO something about them when I do. But shouldn’t MY love for HIM be the same way! When I see that He wants something from me, should I not notice… then move to DO IT!
The ONLY Job of the Church in these years is to “Go into my world and tell the people WITHOUT Jesus… ABOUT Jesus! Do you and I know and love Him enough to notice the lost ones around us, and then share Him with them? That is really the ONLY external ‘print’ He wants others to notice about me.
