be a parade, show your joy!

photo by wm. blake spencer





it was always an odd day...

palm sunday

when staunch

orderly presbyterians

offer an invitation

to thier children to

be a parade and

show thier joy.

the very ones

requiring us children

to remain totally quiet and still

on every other sunday of the year

on this day

greeted us with

brimming smiles

and leafy palms.

be joyful

be a parade

wave the palm branches

like you mean it.

really?

i'm sorry

all the lessons on

all those other sunday's

were hard to shake...

i didn't trust this

invitation

this urging

to be a parade

and show my joy!

it was a suspicious

moment

i did not trust...

for if indeed my joy

came out too boldly

and my palm branch

inadvertantly bopped

mrs. decker on the

back side of her head

as i was moving up the

middle aisle...

well i didn't want to

consider the final disappointment!

and so

just perhaps

that's why presbyterian's

don't wave thier

palm branches with vigor

on palm sunday...

they sense the lessons of thier

childhood...

more importantly they

sense the

humility and the

vulnerability of

the coming

week called holy

which ends on

the day called friday

and remains

ever so quiet on saturday.

be a parade,

show your joy...

but prepare

for the coming story.