Upheld Through The Palms

At Christmas, we read the wonderful stories of how God announced the birth of His Son, Jesus.

The tender story of the awestruck shepherds grabs our imaginations. Think of it! Sitting in a quiet star filled night when suddenly it’s bright and golden and now full of strange singing beings. What would you do? Stare? Cower? Flatten yourself to the ground until you were told not to be afraid and listened to the grand tidings? I always wonder what the towns people thought. Surely the sky lit up for them, too, even if they didn’t hear the song or speeches or see the angels? Hmm.

What about the wise men or kings from the East? They made a big splash. They provided support in their gifts for the Holy Family who had to flee to Egypt for a few years after their visit. Then they were gone, never to be heard from again. Where did they go? What were their lives like after that?

Now we come to celebrate Palm Sunday: the day when Jesus rode a donkey into His very own capital city. The City of Peace. The city where He sat with Abraham millennia before. The city He is preparing for His second coming.

That day when He rode the donkey, He was worshipped. But only because they thought He would free them from their political bondage. They didn’t have a clue about the real bondage He came to free them and us from.

Ok, this is nothing new to us these days. We know it all. Or so we think. But I often wonder where those shepherds, who knew the Truth, were that first Palm Sunday? Maybe they came to town, too, to wave their palm fronds in worship of the One they knew for sure came to redeem them. Did they speak out? Were they drowned out with the noise? And just a few days later, where were they when the One they knew was Truth was crucified? Did they see the Cross from their hillside as they tended their sheep that day? What did they do?

“Oh, the shepherds who saw Baby Jesus had long died by then,” you might say. But, somehow, I don’t think all of them had passed on. I bet there were some who stared across the hills in another kind of awe, not believing their eyes and ears. Then, on Resurrection Day, what did they do then? Did they know?

Do you ever wonder?

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men!” Luke 2: 14.