Perhaps this is a pastime of yours: people watching. You're at the mall taking a short yet much needed break from returning the incredibly practical Christmas gift your  old Uncle Eddie never wanted—"Don't buy me gifts," he's always telling you, "I just want your company,"—and there, by that soft pretzel place, you start people watching.

Another great place to people watch, of course, is while you're parked on a park bench or at a sporting event. While the mall and sporting events are great places to people watch, would you like to know what's the best place to people watch? The airport.

Here is a fact. You see some of the most interesting people, side by side, in an airport terminal. Have you ever noticed that? And the bigger the airport, the better.  You see the very rich and the very eccentric. In one sweeping glance, you see real-life cowboys and Casanovas, nuns and nuts, sailors and salespeople, the mild and meek, the assertive and the uncertain.

Anna, the prophet in our scripture lesson this morning, might well have been a people watcher. There at the temple for all those years, there it was undoubtedly the center of her community, she must have seen a great deal. And she, like you, may have enjoyed watching people come and go, season after season, year after year.

Scripture tells us a little about her. Read with me verses 36 and 37. Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years.

Hollywood weddings today may last seven weeks—and even I heard about one very short lived one this year, and I have no interest in this—but then, in Anna's day, a marriage lasting only seven years must have been truly painful.

Consider this. Anna's wedding day must have been a joyous occasion, a most important day in the life of a young Jewish woman. And she almost certainly would have married as a young teenager, according to the custom of her day. And while it's a fact that your old Uncle Eddie doesn't want any Christmas gift, this is also true. It was the hope of a Jewish maiden to marry and bear children. But Anna had been chosen by God for a unique purpose. Luke tells us that she was a prophet, gifted with special wisdom and insight. Did her husband realize what a treasure God had given him?

Yet after only seven years of marriage, Anna's husband died. Her world was torn apart. She was only in her twenties and already a widow. If you think career options here in Susquehanna County can be limited, her options were far, far less than what you find on the dollar menu at McDonalds. In this, Anna could have become bitter and angry at God for allowing this tragedy in her life. But instead, she let her suffering draw her closer to God. Believing in God's special purpose for her life, she devoted herself to serving him. Rather than cry or throw a decade long pity party, she recognized what you can recognize, and it's that God has a plan for you, even or especially through hardship. That's point one today. God has a plan for you, even, or especially through hardship.

For many decades, Anna lived in the Temple, spending her days in fasting and prayer. She lived in a time of great political upheaval and religious corruption, yet she faithfully interceded for her people, trusting in God's promise of a Messiah. Throughout the year, Jewish families came to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices and celebrate religious holidays. Year after year, they saw Anna serving in the Temple; she had been there as long as most people could remember and they admired her devotion.

By the time she reached eighty-four years old, Anna's physical health had no doubt deteriorated, but her spiritual senses were keen and sharp. A lifetime of diligently seeking the Lord had made her uniquely sensitive to his leading. Anna was a woman devoted to prayer, not just talking to the Lord, but listening to his voice. Like Enoch and Elijah before her, Anna truly walked with God. That is why when a certain young couple came to the Temple to dedicate their infant son, she knew immediately that this was no ordinary child.

lang=EN>Anna recognized that this tiny baby named Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. Her heart leapt within her; God's promise was at last being fulfilled! The Deliverer had been sent! And as the culmination of a lifetime of humility and obedience, God had allowed Anna to see the Savior before she died. Luke says "coming in that instant, she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem" (2:38).>

lang=EN>Anna's joy was boundless and she shared the exciting news with all the faithful believers with whom she came in contact. People must have been surprised, and even doubtful, when she proclaimed the message, especially when she said that the Messiah was a poor peasant child. Anna lived in a time when a woman's testimony was not even allowed in a court of law.>

lang=EN>But Anna had built her credibility through years of faithful service to God. People recognized her as the woman they had seen praying and fasting in the Temple, year after year, the one who radiated love and joy. Some of them surely knew that Anna was a widow and that her loss had only deepened her faith in God's promises. The Redeemer of Israel had come at last! This was no ordinary message, but Anna was no ordinary messenger.>

lang=EN>Because she chose to trust God and follow his direction for her life, Anna was able to fulfill the special purpose for which she was designed. Her obedience and humility had placed her in the right place, at the right time, with a spirit sensitive to God's leading. And she had the honor of being one of the first evangelists recorded in Scripture, one who gladly proclaimed the Good News of the promised King!>

In short, Anna held onto the plan for her life—and the plan was God's plan. Not her own. And she, like you, can be blessed in it. God has a plan for you, even or especially through hardship. And again, that's point one.

Now jump down to the end of that paragraph because she can do what you can do. Read with me the sentence that begins with She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.

Our January 2012 sermon series is about heat, particularly your heat and how it's going. If you want heat, talk with everyone about the child who will rescue not only Jerusalem, but Harford, Hop Bottom, Kingsley, Great Bend and Hallstead, not to mention Nicholson, Lenox and all places in between and around the world.

God has a plan for you, even or especially through hardship, and the plan includes talking about the child. If you want God's favor upon you, talk about the child. That's point two.  If you want God's favor upon you, talk about the child.

Leviticus 6:17 says this. Remember, the fire must keep burning on the altar at all times. It must never go out. Fill that in below the second sermon point. Find it in your Bible later and mark it. Again, it's Leviticus 6:17, and it says this: remember, the fire—your fire—must keep burning on the altar—in the world—at all times. It must never go out.

We are talking about heat this January, and to have heat we have to have a fire, and there's a fire burning within this church. There's a fire of desire to come closer to the Lord and, like Anna, to hear and to apply His plan. It's a fire that must never go out.

If you want God's favor upon you—and God's favor is what God wants, and what God wants is you—then talk about the child. Talk about the child.

What does Jesus mean to you? What does Jesus do for you?

You can certainly keep your lips sealed like you've been doing for five, ten, fifteen or fifty years, or you can open your heart and your mouth and share who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for you. Start small. You don't need to be building a mountain just yet if you have little or no experience with building a mountain. But you can, moment by moment and day by day, start talking about God.

And you can do this first by giving thanks. Give thanks to God. Every one of us have smacked up hard against something painful. Anna did. She lost her husband. But even through that, you can find thanks. You can find praise.

This brings us to point there. Even in your hardships, you can find Jesus. Even in your hardships, you can find Jesus.

I want to talk about hardships, for a moment. This name I'm about to share with you comes not by happenstance, but through God directly.

See, we were coming down to the end of the year and I just submitted my mileage to our treasurer, Ginny Ahearn. I send her who I visited, and a few times Ruth-Anne Gallinger's name was there.

When I think of hardships—and I know they are out there—family loss, job insecurity, teen pressure—I think sometimes of Ruth-Anne, and again, her name being in front of me as it was recently is no coincidence.

Ruth-Anne, who as you remember passed away in late November, had some real physical struggles with her rheumatoid arthritis, struggles most of us didn't know, or didn't fully know.

At her memorial, I shared something about her. This is a direct quote from that message. "Read His word," she'd have me say today. Know His word. Live His word. And the snarls and the snares of this world will slide away.

While deeply and dearly blessed, Ruth-Anne, like all of us, including Anna, has had a few snarls and snares along the way. When I came across this fact about a sisal plant, it made me think of her.

The sisal plant makes tough sisal twine. It grows near Yucatan, Mexico, in hard stony soil. Years ago, some Americans visited the area and decided that there might be good money to be made in growing the sisal plant in richer soil under better conditions. So they started a sisal plantation in Florida where the plants found life no longer a struggle for survival. Yes, the plants grew to an enormous size. The business promised tremendous returns until the time came for reaping.

At the time of the harvest, they learned the leaf from which the tough fiber comes from collapsed into a soft pulp because the tough fiber-quality was missing.

It didn't take long for these business execs to realize the sisal plant acquired its toughness by its battle with adverse circumstances—the wind, the heat, and the barren soil. God doesn't take pleasure in allowing the blasts of adversity to trouble His people, but in His mercy and wisdom knows just what is necessary to foster the growth of spiritual character.

Be like Anna. Be like Ruth-Anne. Talk about the child, and yes, oh yes, let your hardships bring you closer to God, not further away.