There I sat in the pew with my palm branch this past Sunday. My palm branch was different, though. It was broken. There were pieces missing from it. It was like me – incomplete.
As I listened to the sermon on Jesus humbly riding a donkey into Jerusalem as the people cried out “Hosanna” and waved their palm branches, I thought about the one I held in my hand. If I had been in Jerusalem that day, would I have waived this imperfect branch as He entered? Probably not. I would have been ashamed by it and thought He was much more worthy than this pathetic branch.
Today, though, I think the opposite. I would wave it because that is exactly what He wants us to do. We are called to humble ourselves before Him, in our brokenness, incompleteness, weakness, despair, ugliness and everything else we may want to hide.
Proverbs 18:12 says “Before a downfall the heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.”
So I will stand at the door of the city, waving and offering my broken branch, crying out “Hosanna” and praising Him for the deliverance through grace and mercy that He extends with love.
“No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.” ~ William Penn
Raelyn Pracht 