There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. 

She was very old; 

she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four.

Luke 2:36-37 NIV

If you were in church this week or going today it's unlikely that there'll be a sermon about Anna.

One of the obscure people in the Christmas story.

She was very old.

She'd suffered a personal tragedy, if she was married at 15 she became a widow at 22.

The text could read she had been a widow for 84  years, which would make her 106 years old.

With all the other miraculous stuff going on around Jesus birth this seems quite possible.

Maybe this Christmas morning you feel like an obscure character. 

On the fringe of God's sight, unseen in the world, maybe like Anna, know what loss and suffering is.

But Luke writing about her, the Holy Spirit including this in the text tells us that in God's upsidedown kingdom there is no one obscure.

There is no one on the fringe.

God's great heart of love is for each of us, the same.

Breathe that in today.

He loves us even if the world sees us as obscure, unseen, unknown.

The upsidedown kingdom says you're important, needed, loved.

#christmas

#annasstory

#upsidedownkingdom

#dearlyloved

#childoftheKing

#hopeiscomingforyou