Thursday, October 17, 2013

Bucket List

          My husband, Ron, has a creative approach to a bucket list.  Whenever we do something fun, he says, "Let's write this on our bucket list and check it off."  I love this!  We are never fearful that we'll die before we get to the end of our list because there's nothing on it except things we've already done!

         Reading about Simeon in Luke 2:25-32, we find that he apparently had only one thing on his bucket list.  He knew the scriptures' promises about the coming of the Messiah, and he anticipated that coming with all the eagerness it deserved.  Something (the Spirit) urged him to go into the temple courts the same day Mary and Joseph brought Jesus there for the first time.

          Simeon took him into his arms and praised God, saying, "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.  For my eyes have seen our salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all the people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people."

          Simeon was dialed in to what really matters.  He got it!  Having seen the Messiah, he was good to go.  All his dreams had come true.  He didn't need a trip to retrace the Israelites journey from Egypt to the promised land.  He didn't need some award or recognition.  He wasn't longing for some prized possession.  He just wanted to see Jesus.

          But Simeon really saw so little of Jesus--just the baby.  Still, he knew the importance of who Jesus was.  Before all the miracles, before all the amazing lessons, before the resurrection, before the church--Simeon saw none of the wonderful things we have seen.  But he was fulfilled to the point that he was ready to die happy!

          The Apostle Paul seemed to have a bucket list, too.  Paul's bucket list extended all the way to how he would die and into eternity:

          I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

          The longings of these men's hearts challenges us to ask ourselves: what would it take for me to be able to say to God, "You can take me now.  Everything I've longed for on this earth has been fulfilled!"

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