It’s Palm Sunday. The day my Lord rode into Jerusalem, with crowds waving palms and singing joyous hymns. Children brought him flowers, and adults placed their robes on the ground. All pressed into to see this man of God and touch the hem of His robe. “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
As beautiful as today is, I feel His pain approaching on Maunday Thursday. Gethsemane was a beautiful garden, but it held so much darkness. My Lord was chained and marched off to prison and untold torture. The crowds turned against Him, and Pilate released Barabbas, a robber and murderer. He was forced to carry His own cross to the place of the skulls, Golgatha.
I doubt I could have stood one minute of such a dreadful death, but on that hill, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” I am one of the multitude who need forgiveness, and I often do not know why I do the things I do. Although He said, “It is finished,” He was not and neither are we. On that dark Friday, we saw the hard truths about our world, but we also saw its goodness in the love of our Savior.
His resurrection lets me know that He lives, and that someday, I will go to meet Him in the home He prepared for me. Because He gave so much, we all have a better life. With faith the size of a mustard seed and if you believe, you will have eternal life, a life more beautiful and wonderful than anything here on earth.
We are truly blessed that He came to earth as a child and left as the Savior of the world. On Easter morning, I pray that our world will put down its arms, hatred, greed, violence, racism, and bigotry for what Jesus Christ died for: eternal love. If we just have a little of His love and grace, our world would be truly wonderful.
Anna Hartt
