Try to picture this scene for yourself.

Tuesday, 12/29/15

In our hearts we should reconstruct the Gospel scene. We should picture  Joseph carrying the forty-day-old child. We should picture Mary reaching over  to readjust the robe.

And how do you picture the baby wrapped?

I used to chuckle over this account in the Korean Bible. Over there, sixty years ago there were no plastic or paper bags for purchases. Every wife carried a big bandana for wrapping up what she bought. It was called a podeggi; and their bible said that when Jesus was born, Mary wrapped him in her podeggi. 

Stay with that scene. Picture, if you can, the pride and joy in the faces of Mary and Joseph.

What about the priest? When he took the two small doves the couple offered in buying the first-born back from God, did he know what was happening? Probably not. The things priest do every day get to be routine.

Old Simeon did recognize the child. He had been coming to the temple every day, hoping that one day he would see the fulfillment of the promises he lived for.

“Lord, now you can let your servant go in peace. My eyes have seen the salvation of your people.”