Thoughts of the Heart: Christmas Devotional

“When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.” — Luke 2:22

It’s hard to imagine the mixture of emotions Mary and Joseph must have been experiencing as they approached the Temple that day. The birth of a baby is enough to throw any first-time parents off-balance. And Mary and Joseph have more to handle than most. Having been uprooted from their community, they’re experiencing isolation and vulnerability. Plus, there’s the amazing story that the shepherds told them the night of Jesus’s birth. Of God’s joyful birth announcement brought to them by an angelic host.

I’d be surprised if Mary and Joseph don’t anticipate something special happening at the Temple. Surely, if God announced Jesus’s birth to mere shepherds, He would have made sure to alert the priests and teachers of the law as well. Yet, as Mary and Joseph move through the Temple courts, purchasing their doves and joining the line of people waiting to offer their sacrifice, no one seems to notice them.

Here are all of these people supposedly focused on worshipping God, who fail to recognize that God is physically present among them. Their eyes are blinded. Their hearts are set on other things.

Except for Simeon and Anna. These two people have hearts in tune with God and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Simeon prophesies that Jesus will reveal the thoughts of peoples’ hearts, and interestingly, Jesus seems to be fulfilling the words even as Simeon speaks them. “…the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed (Luke 2:35),” and it appears that the those of all but Mary, Joseph, Simeon, and Anna were focused on other things.

This Advent season, I find myself wondering: if it had been me in line behind Mary and Joseph that day, would I have noticed Jesus’s presence? Would I have been drawn toward Him? Or would my heart have been distracted by lesser things?