"Voices from Scripture" is a work of fiction based on some references in Scripture to "minor" characters. As the Bible gives us few lines about these people, this series imagines what they would have been like, their personality, and what their thoughts could have been in the situations mentioned. It is hoped that as the different characters and situations come alive, the Bible also becomes more real, and we grow in our faith and discipleship.

Voices from Scripture: Anna
(A work of fiction)
A babe, but it's the Messiah!

 

By KWA KIEM KIOK

I DIDN'T think I would live to see this day. At my age my knees hurt, I don't see very well, and they tell me that I'm deaf. That doesn't bother me: sacrifice and offering God does not desire, but my ears He has pierced with His commands. I don't care if I can't hear all the gossip in the Temple.


Anyway, where was I … Temple … ah yes. The Temple. It's my home now, you know, for as long as I can remember. Yes, I've been here a very long time. I'm quite content, since there's enough to do here. The services to attend, and quite a number of people still come to me to ask me for a word of blessing, or to read with them a passage of Scripture.


Then there are all the Festivals, Passover, Pentecost, Booths. So yes, there's plenty to keep an old woman like me content. But I've asked Yahweh Almighty to take me to the other side, having outlived my husband, my brothers and sisters and most of my childhood friends by now. And yet, I'm still around. Maybe it is for the privilege to see what I saw today.


This was a particularly busy day - pretty much the whole morning was spent with Benjamin in one of his long-winded meetings, then Hannah was waiting for me to pray for her sick daughter Ruth, then, one after another, various others came for a blessing. So it was nearly the sixth hour when I managed to get away for a rest; my knees felt very stiff.


It wasn't so crowded in the temple courts at that time, and I saw a family saying goodbye to old Simeon. I would have walked on, but the young mother happened to look up then and caught my eye. You know, I've never seen more bewildered parents, almost as if they couldn't quite grasp what happened. Yet, there was something in her eyes, both hopeful and peaceful at the same time. The father was very protective. I was drawn to them, as if commanded by Yahweh Almighty.


Then I saw their child, I knew that He was it, yes, the Holy One of Israel, our Saviour, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. Parts of Scripture came to mind: Man of sorrows acquainted with grief, He was despised and rejected, a child who is the Saviour of the world … The mother readily gave me the child to carry, and I said, "This child will be the redemption of Jerusalem." Then she took back the child, and they went off, still bewildered and still joyful.


Some of you may think that these are just the prattle of an old lady, but I tell you, that was the Messiah. Trust me, I may be deaf to your voice, but I can quite clearly hear Yahweh's voice. If you spend as much time with the Almighty as I do, you'll be able to hear His voice clearly too. Finally, the Messiah has come! Still a babe, sure, but the promises - He will bring forth justice to the nations, a bruised reed He will not break … will it finally be fulfilled? (Luke 2:36 - 38).

Kwa Kiem Kiok, a member of Trinity Methodist Church, is on sabbatical at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, the United States.

QUOTE:

THE HOLY ONE

'Then I saw their child, I knew that He was it, yes, the Holy One of Israel, our Saviour, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. Parts of scripture came to mind: Man of sorrows acquainted with grief, He was despised and rejected, a child who is the Saviour of the world … '