According to the Law of Moses, every first-born male belonged to the Lord. Parents presented their 40-day-old firstborn to the Lord in the temple and then redeemed him, bought him back. Mary and Joseph obeyed this command and brought Jesus to the temple (Luke 2:22-23). In divine irony, the Redeemer is redeemed. Jesus, who belonged to God, who was God, is bought back by His human parents so that He might buy back humanity.
Only the Holy Spirit can reveal what is hidden in such irony. He so enabled Simeon who saw God’s salvation in this bought-back baby (2:30). By the same Spirit, Anna saw in this redeemed child the “redemption of Jerusalem” (2:38).
God hides in the most peculiar places—a womb, a manger, under the Law in the Temple, in a wandering and homeless rabbi, and, His darkest hiding place, a cross. Through His Word, the Spirit reveals our God in them all. So if it seems like God is hiding, well, perhaps He is—in your crisis, in our pain, in your illness, in your anguish, in your suffering. The Spirit reveals that it is so. He is present in it all. He works through it all for our good and His glory.
The Presentation of our Lord―how ironic. The Redeemer redeemed so He could redeem and bless the lives of the redeemed!