Palms

I love working in a place where it's more than ok to share/show your faith.  It's celebrated!  God has put me in a place where I'm constantly surrounded with symbols of the Christian life. For example, it's Holy Week.  My office is just down the hall from our Chapel.  I can go there any time and, of course, it is full of the color of the season.  The purple draping reminds me of the Kingship of Christ and how we are, also, royalty because of Jesus.  The stations of the cross are on the wall - I'd like to devote another post to that.  Today I saw palms appear in the chapel and on the credenza against a wall outside my office.  Seeing them reminds me of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and all the celebrating that went on that day.  No one but Jesus knew how temporary that would be.  But for now, the palms are displayed.  These are the palms used in Palm Sunday services and will be blessed and burned, and their ashes used for next spring's Ash Wednesday services.  Looking at them reminds me of Jesus' entry immediately followed by his death, burial, and (PTL!) resurrection - then reminds me to look ahead to next year's Lenten beginning.  Really that is a picture of the cycle of the Christian's life: joy of salvation, repentance of sin, forgiveness and renewing, inevitable sinning again, etc.  But the best part is that Jesus showed the way through His death to life eternal!  Thank you, Jesus, for going through the humiliation and pain of the cross to lead us into your heaven!  See you there!!!!