Hanukkah Night 5

The reading for tonight is Luke 2:30-32:

"My eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the gentiles and the glory of Your people Israel."

Just think of Simeon, being told by God that he would not die until he saw the Savior. Who knows how long Simeon was there, day after day, year after year...I wonder if there was a time where he doubted whether what God told him would come to pass.  Or was his faith constant throughout that whole time? But yet in the end, his faith was rewarded when he heard the cries of Jesus in the temple that day. I wonder if he was weeping for joy as he said this statement...

But what about us? Has God given us a word of  a promise that has not yet come to pass? Maybe our faith is flagging, doubting whether or not He will fulfill His word...especially in this "instant" age (instant coffee, instant meals, etc). Maybe we can all learn something from Simeon and understand the verse that Peter writes in his second letter: 8But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2 Peter 3:8). Maybe we have to learn that God doesn't see time as we do and that if He is patient enough with us to keep waiting on us to come to His Son or for us to learn something, then we who are His children and supposed to be like Him, should do the same thing with the Father and learn that He keeps his promises. He did with Simeon and if He is the same yesterday, today and forever, then he will with us as well.