Our dog, Shiloh, loved treats. He needed them, so he thought, before eating his regular food. He whined. He danced around. He nudged us. And he watched.  When we told him to sit and wait, he sat and waited. But his eyes never left our hands. He watched.

When we walked into the laundry room where we kept the treats, he came to the doorway. When we closed the door, because it is also a bathroom, he laid down, nose pressed to the door. When he heard movement, he jumped back up.

At those times, Shiloh lived in expectation. He watched and waited with every part of his body.

Anna was a prophetess. In no way was she like Shiloh, except in this: she lived with her heart waiting. She lived every day at the temple, she spent all her time in prayer and fasting. And so, when the six-week-old Jesus showed up, she was there.

84 years old.

Temple all the time.

Saw Jesus once.

But once was enough for her. Luke says of her, “She continued to speak of him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

But I bet she kept going to the temple until the day she died. Now with news of Hope.

(Luke 2:36-38)