I just wanted to take a minute to write about Palm Sunday because I love this day as a kick-off to Easter Holy Week.
I finished reading The Robe a couple weeks ago and I keep thinking about it, specifically how the author described Christ returning to the city on Palm Sunday. All those people thronging around him, honoring Him with their palms. It describes one of the main characters, a slave to a Roman soldier, who saw Him and was changed because of that interaction. His life changed because of that serene face he happened to lock eyes with in the crowd. Not the face someone wanting to come in and take control as a king, but someone who knew.
Knew His divine role He was there to perform.
And someone who had complete love and understanding of him, a slave, as they locked eyes.
So, in thinking about that book today I wonder, if I were there that day all those years ago, would I be holding a palm in my hands to honor Jesus’ return? Is my heart soft enough that I would have felt His goodness had we caught eyes? Would I have sought to follow him and write His countenance in “the fleshy tables of my heart?”
I hope so.
And of course I don’t have to be in that thronging crowd to follow Him. What I do today makes that difference. I hope I can take up my symbolic palm leaves in my life and not only follow Him, but seek to be more like Him in how I live each day.
Oh there are so many messy days. Messy days where my heart races and I make so many mistakes and I don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. But how grateful I am that he did make that triumphant entry all those years ago for that very purpose: to save me. And to save you. And to save all of us by giving us the ultimate gift that has the power to make us whole.
This is beautiful, and it really touched my heart this morning. Thank you.