Seeing Salvation (1st Sunday of Christmastide)

This week, we looked at the responses of Simeon and Anna to the arrival of Jesus at the temple as a child. Both were up in years and had waited for an incredibly long time to see salvation come to their people and, thereby, to the world.

In our colloquial conversations about salvation, we often think about how we receive it, the way that it is a gift from God—and it is—but what we often miss in the story of Simeon and Anna is that they regarded salvation as being right before their eyes. In other words, the child before them was their salvation embodied.

Salvation is not relegated to the ways we benefit from what God has done. Rather, salvation is found when we delight in the one whom God sent. We should indeed rejoice in the gift we have been given, but is the gift protection from all worldly harm or discomfort, even rescue from death itself, or is salvation primarily about the one who saves us?

As with any gift, when we receive salvation, we don’t simply say, “Cool, thanks, bye,” to the one who gave the gift. Rather, the gift strengthens our connection to the giver. Considering that our relationship with God was completely broken by our sin, when we receive the gift of salvation, not only do we reap its benefits but we experience the restoration of the greatest love we ever had.

This Christmastide, bask in that love, knowing that if the relationship that runs deepest can be restored, then as you walk with Jesus your savior, you will continue to experience restoration until the day it is made complete in the new creation.