Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. Palms are on a bench outside the church should you care to collect one for your home service, to place somewhere outside your home to share that you are a Christian on a journey to Jerusalem. For those who shelter I will suggest in the service tomorrow that we place our hands, palms up, next to our computer or email or script of the service. Covid-19 cannot prevent us from waving our “palms,” branches or hands. Name a gratitude for each finger!
So where does the word “palm” come from, I am pondering. The internet tells me it is old English or old Latin for the fleshy part of the hand between the wrist and the fingers. Not very insightful. The calendar quote for today shares from Albert Schweitzer, “Wherever a man or a woman turns he can find someone who needs him. Even if it is a little thing – do something for which there is no pay – but the privilege of just doing it. Remember, you don’t live in the world all on your own.” Can we think of some little thing today to do with our palms to bless another, just for the privilege of doing it. Prov. 4:23 is underlined in my Bible, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Allow me the liberty to rephrase that for today – above else, guard your palms, for they are major avenues to express love and praise.
I close with a quote from an email I received this morning from my son’s friend in Uganda, listening to a news report briefing of the country about Covid-19. At the end of the interview with the Minister of Health, “a reporter asked this question: ‘Does the campaign to halt Covid virus include hope in God, or only in science?” The Minister of Health, responded in what were her final remarks for the day, “it is important to pray…. When we pray to God, he listens, he responds… For us in the ministry of health we are combining both—we pray and we also have scientists to guide us on the response…. In any case, the wisdom that the scientists are using, is given to them by God. So you cannot de-link God from Covid-19, neither can you de-link God from the response. He is the ultimate authority in this response. So I appeal to Uganda to continue praying.’” Tomorrow we join together to raise palms in praise and in prayer.
On the Way to Wonder 