The Lord Comes to Those Who Prayerfully Seek Him

It is striking that widows tend to have a very positive profile in the gospels. In one of the parables that Jesus spoke, a widow keeps coming to a corrupt judge for the justice she is entitled to, until she finally gets him to take her seriously. Jesus told this parable as an encouragement to us to keep praying always and not lose heart. On another occasion, as Jesus was in the Temple in Jerusalem, he saw a widow put two copper coins, all she had to live on, into the Temple treasury. Jesus draws his disciples’ attention to her as a model of complete self-giving to God. In one of the gospels, we find a widow named Anna who never left the Temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer. 

Widows were vulnerable in the time of Jesus. If they didn’t have children, they were especially vulnerable. It may have been their very vulnerable status which led them to entrust themselves to God. If they had no one to rely on, they could depend on God. Being somewhat alone in the world, there was a space in their lives which was filled with God. 

Anna was in constant prayerful communion with God. It was only fitting that she should happen to come by just when Mary and Joseph brought their child into the Temple and Simeon was announcing who this child would become. Later on, the adult Jesus would say, ‘Ask and it will be given to you; search and you will find’. Anna was someone who sought the Lord in prayer, and one day she found the one whom she sought. Having found him, she shared him with others. She spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem. We have much to learn from this widow. She reminds us that the Lord comes to those who prayerfully seek him, and she encourages us to share with others the Lord who has come to us.

Martin Hogan, The Word of God is Living and Active