Day 38: Palm Sunday

Holy week starts for my family the Saturday before Palm Sunday. Our church has a tradition of decorating the whole sanctuary and beyond with palms from people's yards.

We had a stubborn palm that had grown between our driveway and the sidewalk.  The bigger it got the more of a nuisance it became.  It blocked the view of the road.  It got in people's way who were walking by.  Every year,  I cut every last branch off and take them to church for Palm Sunday.  We finally cut it down a year or two ago and now only have a tiny palm near the house (which was also a volunteer and is also terribly placed near the sidewalk leading to the front door). 

This year,  I handed the loppers to Andrew and he cut the branches.  The boys had them loaded up before I got outside. 

We were the first ones at the church. A few more cars pull in moments later and everyone tumbles out dragging palm branches behind them. In under 30 minutes the church had been transformed. It almost looked like a jungle with palms draped over the piano and organ,  over doorways and around the alter.  In front of each pew and on the walls all around.  Green everywhere.  

I think about that first palm Sunday. Crowds of people hoping for a regime change.  Waiting for a good king to lead them into a golden age. But Jesus didn't ride a war horse into the city.  He wasn't there to topple the government or protest politics of the day.  

He was there to celebrate freedom with his friends. He was there to turn the world upside down by letting love run loose in all it power.  He was there to show us all that there is not one single thing greater than God's love and that through the love of God all things will be made new.  

I stand in the empty church ready to hear the story again.  Ready to be transformed and made new by Jesus again.  Ready to ask myself hard questions.... and ready to pass the story along to the smallest among us.  

Zander helped decorate on Saturday.  

Zander helped prepare for the king. 

Zander heard the story and helped make Communion bread with the rest of my Sunday school class. 

There were twelve of them gathered around me this morning. We baked Communion bread and re- told the story of passover. I told the story of the last super and the passion. 

One child exclaimed, Jesus broke the rules. "Once you die you are supposed to stay dead!" 

Yes,  God loves us in a way that breaks all the rules and there is no where,  including death,  where God will not be with us.   

Jesus gave us two commands. To love each other and to bear witness to the work of God in our lives. And so,  I pass the story on and soak in the joy of small people finding the love of God at church.