Looking for Christmas, Part 2

Looking for Christmas Part 2: Shifting Sorrow to Service

A widow at the tender age of 22. Surely not the story Anna had planned for her life.

Perhaps this Christmas season,  your story has taken a turn toward sorrow because of a loss or tragic circumstance. You know it is Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year, but you feel like Cindy Lou Who, singing “Where are You Christmas?”. Let’s see how Anna turned her sorrow into service and found Christmas.

Anna’s age is debatable, but scholars’ best estimate based on the culture is that Anna married around the age of 14 or 15. The scripture tells us she was married for seven years, then the unthinkable happened.

³⁶ And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷ and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers. 38 At that very moment, she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. Luke 2

So what does a 22-year-old widow do with the sorrow? She could have sunken into depression and grief until her heart became bitter and hardened. She could have sought after the answer to the “Why me, God?” question until she was totally exasperated.

But Anna chose a different response in the midst of her grief – she chose to serve God rather than being a slave to her emotions.

I just wonder how many lives Anna touched as she fasted and prayed night and day in the temple. Surely people with a need in their life would seek her out and request her powerful prayers or her godly advice.

It is part of the human experience to suffer loss. What we do with that experience can bless the lives of others or it can shrivel our hearts. <Tweet this

What have you chosen to do with your sorrow?  It is never too late to give God your ashes so He can make it into something beautiful.

Anna chose the “good part” as Jesus once told Martha in Luke 10:42.  Yes, the good part -blessing the lives of those she encountered by praying, prophesying, and fasting. And I believe the whole time Anna was serving, she continued looking for the arrival of Christmas – Jesus Christ – Jerusalem’s Redeemer.

If you are drowning in sorrow this Christmas season, shift your sorrow toward serving others. Like Anna, keep on looking for the Redeemer in all you do this season and you will be sure to find Christmas.

This is the second installment in this series called “Looking For Christmas”. Here is “Looking for Christmas, Part 1. We are following this outline as Anna seeks Christmas:

S: shifted sorrow into service

E: Encouraged other people

E: Expected the Bridegroom

K: Kept telling about Jesus