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• Illustration: Buchanan wonders in detail what a typical day in Simeon's life was like.
• The day Simeon met Jesus probably started like any other, and then it got interrupted.
• Both Jesus' parents and Simeon were acting in obedience to something bigger than them.

• Illustration: Brett Hart's "The Luck of Roaring Camp" tells of a hard-living mining town that is profoundly changed by the birth of a baby.
• Simeon knew the baby he held in his arms was the baby that changed everything.

• This is a child who fulfills both law and spirit.
• The law gives us the parameters in which God works; but in order for us to do the law, we need the Spirit.
  - Illustration: Philip Yancey tells of a man who, in order to get his master's degree, is required to learn German and views it as a chore until he falls in love with a German woman.
• In Christ, both personal and historical longing converge.
• Simeon's life purpose was not only for himself, but for all of mankind.

• Most of us have small ambitions.
• We should desire a consolation that is both personal and universal.
  - Illustration: Buchanan reads from a letter his dad wrote to his mother while on the road; it tells of his intense sadness that he doesn't know how to make right.
• Illustration: When an onlooker remarks to painter Joseph Turner that she had never seen his bright, vivid colors in nature, he responds, "But don't you wish you did?"

• Simeon lived with such extravagant hope once he had seen Christ, he could die a happy man.