The time of Advent leading up to Christmas is a time of great anticipation for many people. For those who don’t celebrate the birth of Christ, there is still the Christmas celebration and countless children who are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their cache of presents. Even those of us who DO hold Advent (the coming of Christ) and Christmas holy, can be guilty of overlooking those aspects and getting caught up in trees and decorations and elves on shelves and buying mountains of gifts. I freely admit that I am as guilty of this as anyone else.  For that reason I thought that looking at someone who did Advent right would be useful for myself and, hopefully, for others.

Many of you may know the story of Simeon as told in Luke 2:25-35. Simeon was an old man who, by Luke’s description, was “righteous and devout” and was filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. When Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the temple for the usual purification rites Simeon went up to them and said “Sovereign Lord…you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation…”. Imagine anticipating something with your entire being.  That is what I see here out of Simeon. He had such faith in the Lord and obedience to the Spirit, that he considered the arrival of Christ to signify the very completion of his life.

How many of us can point to any event and, after it happens, say “Now I can die”?   More importantly, if we do have such an event that we’re so eagerly anticipating, does it have to do with Christ?  For many older people in Boston that feeling may have come over them after the 2004 World Series and for many Eagles fans that may have just happened last February (may God never allow such a tragedy again). But these are all temporary joys.  I think we should all strive to look forward like Simeon. During this Advent season I want to remember how a righteous and devout man defines completeness in his life.   I want to look forward to the second coming the way Simeon looked forward to the first, and to have that anticipation actually affect my daily life.

This Christmas and Advent season I want to make it a goal to look more to Simeon than to Santa for inspiration.  How great would it be to look forward more to the presence of Christ than to the presents under the tree? If I could have a fraction of Simeon’s faith, dedication and devotion I feel like I would be infinitely better off. There’s no better time than Advent to start living our lives in a way that shows that the second coming of Christ is really what we’re looking forward to with all of our being. Thanks for the blueprint, Simeon.