Day 5 Christmas Countdown Devotional: Anna–enjoying traditions, but not forgetting to worship Jesus

Perhaps your Christmastime is full of family traditions. Over the years our family has developed our share. Decorating starts the day after Thanksgiving. Then comes the annual trip to Longwood Gardens for their light show. We sing Christmas carols for some local nursing home residents and widows. We open the gifts in the stocking on Christmas Eve. We watch a Christmas movie as a family (some have been pretty painful). We take an annual Christmas picture and send it to our friends and family.

Some of our Christmas traditions we’ve picked up from others along the way. Uncle Mark gave us the idea to hide one of the kids’ gifts and give them a set of clues to find it. Friends served vanilla ice cream with fresh raspberries for Christmas morning breakfast—ice cream for breakfast definitely became a tradition! My wife is the keeper of the traditions in our home; reminding us each year what we’ve done in the past. I’m thankful for that; because, now that our kids are all adults, they come home looking for those traditions. Those repeated hoiliday habits make our family identity unique. That being said, too many traditions can cloud the real meaning of Christmas—worship.

In the Christmas story, Anna, the prophetess reminds us of the importance of worship at Christmastime.

Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple…and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem (Luke 2:36-38, NLT).

Because Anna had made a life-long habit of worshiping God, her meeting of the baby Jesus was not casual, but the culmination of a life lived in worship and prayer. Is it any wonder she could not stop talking about him?

While we all have holiday traditions we enjoy, make time to ponder the gift of a Savior and slow down long enough to worship him. Perhaps that’s why I enjoy Christmas Eve services so much. Singing “Silent Night” by candlelight decelerates my pace long enough to remember the real meaning of Christmas. And that’s a tradition worth keeping.

PHIL MOSER is the author of the Biblical Strategies series and the developer of 4M Training: a 13-week small group study for men. All of his resources can be found on amazon or at biblicalstrategies.com.

If you’re looking for a resource for your men’s group, consider 4M Training. Mature, master, minister, and mentor in 13 weeks. Click on image below to learn more.