She was a healthy Jewish girl who kept the traditions, attended synagogue and sang psalms as she worked around the house. In other words, she was just like thousands of other girls between the age of sixteen and eighteen. But to one special man she was more. We don't know his name, but he chose, loved, and married the girl named Anna.

     Then tragedy struck.

     When Anna was in her mid-twenties, her husband's life was cut short. All her neighbors and relatives would have agreed the loss was a tragedy, but they also regarded it as a judgment from God and believed Anna's lack of children after seven years of marriage supported their conclusion. [1] Alone and grieving, she felt the sting.

     The normal thing would have been to return to the house of her father. Maybe she could start life again. Surely there was a widower or other suitable man looking for a wife. However, remarriage was not what Anna wanted. The decision could be forced on her by others, but in her heart she dreamed of something else.

     The Bible doesn't pick up Anna's story until she is eighty-four years old and the entire tale occupies only three verses. We are told she was a prophetess and she, "departed not from the temple but served with fastings and prayers night and day. [2]

     Have you ever wondered how that might work in practical terms? How did she make a living? Where did she sleep? We can't be sure, but other verses and history give some possibilities.

     Drawings of the temple most often focus only on the stately central building, courtyards and burning alters for sacrifice, but the full temple complex was much more. There were also storage facilities [3], apartments, [4] meeting rooms [5] and even rooms that served as temporary isolation chambers. [6] Imagine the space and number of laborers necessary when Solomon offered 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep in a seven day feast that fed a gathering of all the tribes of Israel! [7] Even the daily functioning of the temple was huge. There was teaching, sacrifices, people, music, eating, counseling, prayer, praise, reading of the scriptures and much more activity swirling at all hours and although the vast majority of work was done by men, women were also employed.

     When Anna became a widow, her heart's desire was to spend her life in service to God, and against all odds the Lord apparently honored her dream.

     We are not told many specifics about Anna's life, but one way women served in the temple was by singing. [8] And, when singing was done to God and was about God, it was considered prophecy. [9] David had commissioned temple praise to be given continually and apartments in the temple complex were provided for the singers because the even though the music was offered day and night, the singers worked in shifts. [10]

     Did Anna sing? Was this one way she prophesied? We don't know for sure. But, if she did, her music, like her prayers and fastings would have been offered repeatedly, but not continually. Much of her time would be spent in the court of the women where she taught, prayed for and counseled with women of every description from all over the world. Hearing their concerns, bearing their burdens, her prayer list would have grown large and diverse.

     But the thing Anna likely prayed for most was the coming of Messiah. This promised event was the heart of Judaism. As prophetess, she was part of a long line stretching back through centuries whose duty and passion was to keep the promise alive in the heart of a nation. For sixty years she called on God to keep His promise then one afternoon it all came true.

     Anna was crossing the temple grounds when she saw Simeon in the distance. She knew the old man for he, too, spent much time praying at the temple, but as she approached, she noticed a baby in his arms and a young couple looking up at him expectantly. She heard him praise. She looked at the child. She talked with the parents. And, she knew the promise had come true at last.

     It is fair to say that one of the first Christian missionaries was eighty-four years old for when Anna discovered the promise was fulfilled, she told the good news to all who would listen. After sixty plus years of singing, her song had a new note. Messiah had come.