Simeon took him [Jesus] in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation…” Luke 2:28-30
Lord Jesus, your humility is without comparison, your grace without measure, and your sovereignty is without contingencies or limits. Only days after your birth, the aged Simeon took you in his arms. But really, who was holding whom? What a most glorious paradox.
As children, we loudly sang, “He’s got the whole world in his hands…”—not realizing how profound of an affirmation those words really are. Jesus, by your arms everything was made and is sustained (Col. 1:15-20). Those same arms picked up babies, fed multitudes, healed lepers, were nailed to the cross, and now rule over everything in every place.
Hallelujah, at the end of your grace-filled arms are hands out of which we will never be snatched (John 10:28)—tender, loving, strong hands. Jesus, do you realize (of course you do!) how grateful we are to sing a new verse, “He’s got all of us in his hands”—meaning, you’ve got all of our sin, pain, brokenness, regrets, stories, children, failures, future, health… Jesus, you don’t “just have our backs,” you have our everything.
To embrace you by faith is to be held by the only love that will never let go of us. Jesus, your grip of grace is much tighter than any grip we can muster. Jesus, make this more real to us than anything… for the rest of this week and all of 2023. So Very Amen.