Wave your palms!!

"Son"day, April 1, 2012

Good Morning, Readers and a Happy Birthday to my twin cousins, Kathryn and Karolyn!  I was sitting on the back patio this morning watching the palm dance to the breeze blowing through.  It brought back memories of Palm Sunday which all Christians are celebrating today.  I will be working in the gardens again today and I think that I will take my Bose radio out there and have some praise music uplifting me as I dig and plant.

According to the Gospels, Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem, and the celebrating people there lay down their cloaks in front of him as well as small branches of trees.  The people sang part of Psalm 118 - "...Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.  We bless you from the house of the Lord..."

I did a little research on Palm Sunday and, as usual, found out some things that I hadn't thought of before.  The symbolism of the donkey could possibly refer to the Eastern tradition that it is an animal of peace vs the horse which was an animal of war.  Kings rode on horses when bent on war and rode on donkeys when coming in peace.  Jesus' entry into Jerusalem symbolized his entry as the Prince of Peace.  In many lands in the ancient Near East, it was customary to cover in some way the path of someone thought worthy of the highest honor.  The palm branch was a symbol of triumph and victory in the Jewish tradition.  Because of this, the scene of the crowd greeting Jesus by waving palms and carpeting his path with them has become quite important.

Growing up, many of my families activities were centered around the church.  Easter not only was a time of praising God but also a time of newness with the arrival of Spring.  I will never forget the trip my family made to Minneapolis just before Easter.  My Aunt Lorna took my mother and I to Dayton's in the Southdale Center (Southdale Center was the world's first indoor shopping center) in Edina, Minnesota and we both got beautiful Easter hats and dresses.  My mother was quite a fashion plate and I think she was happy that I took an interest in getting a hat, dress, gloves, and shoes rather than my usual tomboy clothes I was most comfortable in.  The lady at the store, put our hats in hat boxes and our dresses in beautiful Dayton's bags.  On Easter morning, my father presented my mother with a beautiful corsage to wear to church.  He also purchased a corsage for his mother and my mother's mother.  That particular Easter, I put my head in my mother's lap so I could smell her flowers as I listened to the wonderful music.  Funny how little remembrances pop up as we go through life.

Anyway, today I am missing those family ties and wish that they could have gone on forever.  The thing I need to remember though is that my foundation in Christ was strong and that will go on forever.  And, who knows, maybe, just maybe there's an Easter party going on in Heaven with all the Pedersons and Halls!!

Michael has returned home to the town of his roots and is very content.  There are times when I feel like a duck out of water and yearn to return to mine.  I've been in Texas since 1970 and it's a wonderful place where I have grown and flourished.  I was a transplanted Yankee who blossomed in the rich soil of friendly folks and opportunities of learning new ways of addressing life.  I believe this was God's plan for me and, hopefully, I've made a difference in the lives I've touched.  I know I've been blessed by the lives who have touched mine!

I never saw a more difficult film to watch than Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.  For most of the movie, I wanted to look away.  It was horrible to watch just a movie of a crucifixion.  It was beyond my comprehension to think that this actually happened to somebody, and not just anybody, but my Lord and Savior.  I had studied the crucifixion before and knew in my head what Jesus experienced.  Seeing a visual presentation of his suffering was almost more than I could bear.  When The Passion of the Christ was over, I felt a sense of deep humility.  When, Jesus said, "It is finished," I too, was glad it was finished.  If you haven't seen this film, I would suggest you do so this week.  Easter will take on a whole new meaning.

Today is all I have ... today is all I need to accomplish all that God would have me do.  I will wave my own palm branch and lay them at my Savior's feet!  How could I forget how fickle we are as sinners and how loving my Lord is.  It still is incomprehensible for me to understand how God could sacrifice his only son for the likes of me.  I can close my eyes and bow before Him in all humility knowing how much He loves me.  As I go through Holy Week, I will be mindful of all He has done on my behalf and on behalf of all sinners.

May your heart be gentle and patient, loving those around you this week.  What can you and I do to make sacrifices for sinners?  It's easy to love those that are doing what we want them to ... it's a whole lot tougher to love those that don't measure up to what we think they should be doing or saying.

Oh, yes ... at the beginning of my blog I wished my twin cousins Happy Birthday.  Each year on their birthday, my father would tell the story of how he was in Iceland during World War II when he got the news that his sister had delivered twin girls.  At first, he thought it was an April Fool's joke!  I can imagine there are a lot of people playing pranks just like that today!!  A word to the wise ... don't believe all you hear today!!

Until we chat again, always remember you are loved and prayed for ... YA YOU!!

Miss Dottie