A Palm Sunday Reflection from Rita
Looking Around Carefully
7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, He sat on it.
8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.
9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
11 After arriving into Jerusalem Jesus went into the Temple. After looking around carefully at everything He left because it was late in the afternoon.
— Mark 11:7-11
As I read these verses this morning I thought, "Why did He go to the temple, and 'look around carefully'?"
It was late afternoon, and, most likely, few people were there.
Was it because He was recalling the day His mission began, as He unrolled the scroll that day? (Luke 4:17-21)
I wonder...
I often do the same as I sit at my Mother's old kitchen table, where this ministry began.
Looking back 20 years, I am in awe of all that God has done, and continues to do, to express His unwavering, unconditional love for us ALL—so much so that He equated His existence, His very needs, with the outcast of society.
None of what the Lord is doing today, to express His love through Bags of Grace, would be possible if it were not for the fact that He has "sent you in" to be Jesus with His skin on!
I echo Paul's prayer for each of you, as I give thanks for you always:
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him,
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." — Romans 15:13
I could never thank you enough, but I know that GOD CAN, and will!
Now, I wonder, where did I leave that palm branch?
I love you so!
Have a blessed Palm Sunday!
-rita