Turn off all the lights and switch on a torch as you read today’s Bible reading. When you get to the word “light” switch on all the other lights in the room and read the rest of the passage.
Jesus parents took him to the temple when he was about six weeks old. Simeon was an old man who had been waiting all his life to see the Messiah, who God had promised long ago. He believed that Jesus was that promise come true!
Jesus and his family were Jewish, and most of the people in the country he lived in were Jewish. A Gentile is anyone who isn’t a Jew. Simeon is saying that Jesus is for all the Jewish people and everyone else in the whole world. No one is left out.