Faithful Anna

Imagine being me, Mary, a teenaged girl who was about to be married—and suddenly found to be pregnant.  It all sounded so amazing when the angel appeared to me and told me I’d been chosen by God to be the mother of His son.  I mean it WAS amazing.  But I never imagined the consequences it would bring. 

First, I almost lost my beloved.  If the angel hadn’t come to him and told him the truth, he would have put me away.  Secondly, I lost my reputation.  There was horrible gossip and speculation by everyone in my community.  The worst was by the older women who assumed they knew the truth.  I’d been known as the pure young woman whom most of these older women wanted their sons or grandsons to marry.  And now I was the black stain of our small town.  They assumed I’d given up my purity.  

It was all so confusing.  Chosen, but ostracized.  Blessed, but ridiculed.  So the sign posts God placed along my path became treasures I stored in my heart.  My cousin, Elizabeth, was the first sign post.  The baby in her womb leaped when she saw me.  She knew instantly I’d been chosen by God to be the mother of His son.  Another was when the angels appeared to the shepherds and they came to worship him.  And then Simeon…recognizing Jesus as God’s son.  

But…Anna.  Anna was so redemptive for me.  Here was an older woman who held no accusations, no assumptions, and no judgment.  It was obvious she spent her time in prayer and fasting.  Even though she was energetic for someone her age, there was a gentleness that radiated from the inside out. She knew.  She knew Jesus was the redemption of mankind.  But she knew what I needed as a woman and as the mother of this precious gift.  And she gave it—as an older woman to a younger woman:  the KNOWING.  And then she whooped and hollered and shouted the news to everyone around, “Thank you, God!!   Our redemption has come!” 

Redemption comes from God. But I learned that day that he can choose to use an older, godly, prayerful, prophetic, faithful woman as His funnel.