Blessed Palm Sunday to you all! Tonight we watched Marley and Me. To quote my daughter, “If that movie doesn’t bring a tear to your eye, you have no heart”. It is a wonderful movie, but bring the Kleenex. You are going to need them.

Palm Sunday is always a day of excitement. I love the children re-enacting the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem for the last week of His life. When I was a young music minister in a small town, the children gathered on Saturday to practice for the palm processional. I was leading the parade and carrying a tot in one arm, waving a palm with the other and singing Tell Me the Stories of Jesus. I looked behind me and there were no children. They had scattered to the four corners of the sanctuary. I think I had nightmares that night.

Mark 11:1-11 is the traditional Palm Sunday scripture. It tells the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus came into another town about 33 years earlier with His mother Mary and father, Joseph on a donkey? Later the donkey is the beast of burden which carries the King of Kings into Jerusalem and into His death sentence at the end of the week.

Pastor Marc preached the sermon today from the point of view of the hands of Jesus and the power of reconciliation. Jesus makes this final ride and hangs on for His very life because He knows the rest of the travel for the week will be on foot. The same hands that hold onto that donkey are the same hands that healed the sick. These are same hands that mixed the mud together and gave sight to the blind man. The same hands that held the children on the beach that day and raised the dead are the same hands that will be nailed to the cross and bring Him to His death. Pastor Marc said, “Jesus holds on because the Father is holding His hands.”

Jesus did not walk those final steps alone. His heavenly Father walked those steps of that last week with Him. The good news is that God does the same for us. Jesus was His child and knowing how horrible that last week would be, God held onto Jesus. God, through His Son, Jesus, and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, holds onto us because we are His children, too. Whenever the road is getting tough or the times are getting really difficult, then reach out to Jesus. His hand will be there to hold onto yours.

Take joy in the journey. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.