Scripture Scribbles: February 2, 2025

the Gospel

Luke 2:22-40

When the days were completed for their purification
according to the law of Moses,
Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord,
just as it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,
and to offer the sacrifice of
a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,
in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord. 

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout,
awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. 
He came in the Spirit into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,
he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:

    “Now, Master, you may let your servant go 
        in peace, according to your word,
    for my eyes have seen your salvation,
        which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples:
    a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
        and glory for your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;
and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,
“Behold, this child is destined
for the fall and rise of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be contradicted
-and you yourself a sword will pierce-
so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
There was also a prophetess, Anna,
the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.
She was advanced in years,
having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage,
and then as a widow until she was eighty-four.
She never left the temple,
but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.
And coming forward at that very time,
she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child
to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.

When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions
of the law of the Lord,
they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.
The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom;
and the favor of God was upon him.

the scribble

Simeon, a devout and righteous man and Anna, a prophetess, foretold the future of the child Jesus and oh, how accurate were their prophecies!

Now we don’t need to be devout, righteous, or gifted with fortune-telling abilities to talk so beautifully about Jesus or God. We only need to look at our lives and God’s blessings. These are enough reasons to praise, glorify, and adore our Lord through our words and our deeds.

Similarly, in our world today, we don’t need any magic or superpowers to speak nicely of other people as well. I mean, is it so hard to refrain from making hurtful remarks without as much as batting an eyelash when doing so? In addition, whether the allegations against a certain celebrity, politician, media person, magnate, or an influencer are true or not, wouldn’t it be better to use the right avenue to make the concerned individual or group pay for the mistakes or crimes? How many of us take an active participation in threads or posts? When we do, do we do so responsibly? Do we believe every single thing we see or hear, without doing a good amount of research?

Nowadays, the breeding ground for libel and oral defamation is the social media. The world is so preoccupied with the noise of the internet. Bashing, fake news, gaslighting, and many other negative things seem to outnumber the good things that we would rather see or ought to see on social media.

Of course, there are those who don’t use social media at all or are barely active. This is for you. Have you been using your freedom of speech properly or abusively? Do you just keep your mouth shut when you have nothing positive to say?

What’s happening to our moral compass? Is it pointed towards the right direction, to what’s holy and Christ-like? Let’s take a close introspection.

What a blessing that during Jesus’ time, there were no Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Kakao Talk, and many other means for communication yet and for good reasons.

I hope that like Simeon and Anna, and many others who followed Jesus faithfully, only beautiful and nice words come out of our mouths. I also hope that we can refrain from making false statements and harsh remarks against anyone. This will please the Lord. This should be our moral compass.

Today’s devotion was written by Edwina Yu