SCRIPTURE PROMPT

Whiffs of Incense Followed the Elder As He Passed

And he trembled

Image by dodo71 @ PixaBay.com

He’d risen from his study of the Law trembling, yet firm in purpose. His wasn’t the trembling of the elderly. His gait was staid, as if he must not stray from an appointed encounter.

However, the trembling of a man in the presence of the Lord Almighty coursed like a river through him and his breath quickened but then stopped at the entrance.

He gazed at the woman then at the infant. The Elder rubbed his eyes: What was the luminous fog he thought he’d seen? Ahh — the incense, of course, reminding him again to speak.

Slowly, as if handling a rare breakable vessel, he lifted that baby upward, toward the fog, toward the light. From the depths of his soul came a hoarse whispered melody that rose to a wail, and there he worshiped, within the beam of light within the fog, upward, as if to show the babe to His Father.

“Adoni, let me go, now, in shalom! As You promised, I’ve seen it; I’ve seen Your Salvation, which You have ordered since the beginning of all people. This tiny light to lighten us and through us, to lighten all mankind, which as always has been our glory — to shine for you! Glory be to You, Adoni! (Luke 2:29–32)

Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34–35, NKJV)

Katharine Trauger is a retired educator and a pastor’s wife, who writes life-saving content for women from a chalet in a deep woods in the Arkansas Outback, at Home’s Cool! and at The Conquering Mom. She is working on a book entitled Yes, It Hurts. But …