An old man's song

After Luke 2:22-32 

Now I can leave

this form of age

behind me, now

I can depart

in peace, for I

have seen what

was promised,

that I would see

before my death

the promise of

salvation,

the great consolation,

not only for the people

chosen, but for all,

salvation for all

the earth, a light

of revelation, the light

of glory.

 

Photograph by Aaron Andrew Ang via Unsplash. Used with permission.

A revelation

After Luke 2:25-25 and 2 Corinthians 5:20

He knew, within

the confines of

the place, the city,

because it had been

revealed, only to him,

a personal prophecy,

the time of the wait,

the long wait, that

he would not greet

death until he saw

the king, the one

promised, the one

foretold, the one

named messiah.

That time came,

unexpectedly, a thief

in the night, and

he knew the promise

was fulfilled. He knew

he could now die,

a believer before

believers.

Photograph by Stefan Kunze via Unsplash. Used with permission.

To see the child

After Luke 2:22-38

To see the child, this child,

to see the tiny life like

all tiny lives, yet unlike,

to see the one, this child,

the one promised,

the one revealed,

the one anticipated

like the water quenching

the thirst of the desert,

the one expected since

the biting of the fruit,

this is what I was born for,

to know, to see the child,

this child, this revelation.

We all bear the name

of Simeon.

Photograph by Kelly Sikkema via Unsplash. Used with permission.

The mark of Simeon

After Luke 2:22-38

Aged, and aging still,

each day I feel the creak

and rub and grind of bones, 

infirmities of growing old,

but not yet old enough, hair

fading and gray, back

beginning to arc into stooping,

but not yet old enough,

not yet ready to be embraced

and wrapped by the shroud,

not yet, not until I see

the one, the king, not

just another baby or child,

but the One.

It was promised.

Photograph by Omar Lopez via Unsplash. Used with permission.