• Home
  • About Us
  • Resources
  • Authors
  • Write for Us
  • Forward Movement

Grow Christians

A community of disciples practicing faith at home

  • Parenting
  • Discipleship
  • Liturgical Year
  • Prayer
  • Archives
    • Seasons of the Year
      • Advent through Epiphany
      • Ash Wednesday, Lent & Holy Week
      • Easter & Pentecost
      • Ordinary Time
    • Seasons of Life
      • Childhood Years
      • Teen & Young Adult Years
      • Grandparenting & Godparenting
    • Saints and Feasts
      • Saints
      • Feasts
    • Discipleship
    • Making Faith Visible
    • Special Series
    • Grow Christians Updates & Giveaways
  • The Good Book Club
  • Holy Day Resources

The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

February 2, 2020 By Carrie Willard 1 Comment

Today is the day that many Christians remember and honor the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, or the event in scripture when Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the Temple. This event would have been to complete the purification of Mary and to offer the child to God in their obedience to the laws of Moses.

When I reflect on this event, I think about Mother Mary, scraping up enough money to buy two turtle doves, the sacrifice required to bring with them.

Was she still sore from childbirth?
Did she feel like a mother yet?
Was the baby sleeping at all?
Did she have help?

When my husband and I traveled home for my father-in-law’s funeral when our firstborn was just six weeks old (about the same age as Jesus was during his presentation in the temple), I did not know how to fold up our stroller. I relied on TSA agents at the airport to help me figure everything out. And yet, everywhere we went, strangers complimented me on our baby. I didn’t know what to wear, but I knew I was completely in love with my baby. Time took on a warped quality, where I knew exactly how many weeks and days old my baby was, but I couldn’t have told you the day of the week or the season of the year. Friends and family fed us, but I was solely responsible for feeding this new life. How did Mary feel as she ascended the steps to the temple?

My friend Jenny Schroedel, an Orthodox Christian, wrote a beautiful reflection about her first six weeks with her baby as she followed the Orthodox tradition of “nesting in” with her baby. She describes the holiness of the 40-day-period following a baby’s birth. There are echoes of this in other aspects of Christian life: the 40 days of Lent and the 40 days and nights of rain of the Great Flood. Most pregnancies last about 40 weeks, and so 40 days does not seem like too long of a time to let a mother’s body recover. I wonder if Mary felt the same time-warped feeling that many of us do as she adjusted to life as a mother.

What makes the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple even more notable in Christian life, to me, is what the Holy Family found once they arrived. Simeon, a “righteous and devout” man, according to the Gospel of Luke, had been waiting for the salvation of Israel. Christians remember his words in the canticle “Nunc Dimittis,” which means “Now You Dismiss:”

Lord, you now have set your servant free
to go in peace as you have promised;
For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior,
whom you have prepared for all the world to see:
A Light to enlighten the nations,
and the glory of your people Israel.

Simeon knew, when he saw the infant Jesus, that what he had hoped for, prayed for, waited for, had come. Mother Mary may have been wondering if the shepherds and the wise men were all part of a postpartum haze, but here they were, re-entering public life as a family, and a prophet is waiting for them to affirm everything they had been told. I imagine Simeon, who waited for a sign from God, and found it in an infant.

In the Episcopal Church, we often repeat Simeon’s words during Evening Prayer and Compline, liturgies that can be said at the end of any day. It reminds us of the many who waited their entire lives for the good news of Jesus, a “light to enlighten the nations.” For those of us who are waiting, for those of us who feel like we are in a timeless haze, and for those of us who need to be reminded of the enormous good news of Jesus, this event helps us mark time in the life of Jesus and in the life of the Church for which we can be grateful.

[Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons]

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • More
  • Pocket
  • Reddit
  • LinkedIn
  • Skype
  • Print

Related

Filed Under: Liturgical Year, Parenting Tagged With: baby Jesus, Presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ, Simeon

Comments

  1. Judy Schneider says

    February 2, 2020 at 4:26 pm

    Lovely and thoughtful reflection. Thank you for blessing me with a new perspective on a familiar story!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Encouragement in your Inbox

Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts.

Join 4,353 other subscribers

The Spy Series

Grow Christians is brought to you by Forward Movement, a ministry of The Episcopal Church that seeks to inspire disciples and empower evangelists. Follow on Facebook or Twitter.

Search:

Like us on Facebook

Like us on Facebook

Recent Posts

Popular Posts

  • Thinking ahead to Pentecost: Five Ways to Celebrate
  • A bright teen asked me to explain the Trinity. Here's what I said.
  • If We Are to Follow Christ
  • That moment you realize the voice you’re hearing isn’t God – it’s Satan
  • The disciples cast lots to select St. Matthias. My kids do too.

Copyright © 2021 — Forward Movement • All rights reserved.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.