Palm Sunday

 For those of us who are Christians, today is Palm Sunday.  Today marks the beginning of Holy Week.  This is the day when we commemorate Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Ten years ago, I was teaching 7th grade Sunday School with one of my best friends.  We decided that the Sunday School needed to have their very own re-enactment of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  We had taken our thought to the Education Director who hopped onto our plan and made it even better.  She was going to arrange for a Donkey.

Palm Sunday arrives.  All of the kids are lining the long hallway in the Education wing - they all have palm branches, and they have put "cloaks" down on the floor.

Our kids are dressed, and Andy was thrilled that he was going to be playing the part of Jesus.  The rest of the class were his disciples.

We go to the end of the hallway, and we see a wagon - you know, a kid's Radio Flyer Wagon.  And there's a pony on top.  A rocking horse pony from the preschool.  It is placed precariously atop the wagon and held down with a bungee cord.

Excited beyond words, Andy hops onto the rocking horse, and as he attempts to squeeze his very big 7th grade self into this rocking horse designed for a 4 year old, the kids in the hall start waving palm branches and cheering.  Before Andy is completed settled in, his "disciples" begin pushing and pulling the wagon down the hallway.  As the wagon bumped over each and every cloak, the horse moved just a little more off kilter.  

Halfway down the hallway, the fire doors were open, but there was a rough junction on the floor, because that is the spot where the new and old buildings were joined.  When the wagon hit that spot, the rocking horse slipped off on one side and Andy was holding on for dear life, trying to keep himself from crashing off and onto the kids standing on the side of the halls.  As the kids pushing and pulling saw everything start to slide, they decided the solution was to move FASTER down the hallway.

As they burst through the doors at the end of the hallway, Andy did a "tuck and roll" into the grass.

The kids fell on the ground, laughing so hard tears were running down their faces.  

It was the very best Palm Sunday I've ever had. I have a picture of that group that shows up in my Facebook Memories every year.  You can see the grins on the kids faces, and Andy is perched atop the riding horse which was entirely too small for a 12 year old.

I ran into Andy recently.  He's a grown man now.  As we were catching up, he told me that that Palm Sunday Parade is still his all time favorite Sunday School memory.  Palm Sunday has been one of his favorite Holy Days ever since.  

To my friends who are Christian, I hope you have a memorable Holy Week.