Save us!

For once, the headline isn't a reference to some self-deprecating story about my parenting skills. Rather, it's the literal translation, I just learned, for "Hosanna". How have I made it 41 years without knowing that? I thought it was a sort of cheer, similar to "Hooray!"

In church yesterday for Palm Sunday, the Sunday School kids led the procession into the sanctuary. This was Sydney's first year taking part. I assumed I would see her walking slowly, glued to AJ's side as he urged her to go faster. Nope! When the march started, Sydney was near the front, proudly holding her palm branch high in the air, clearly not needing nor wanting her brother's help.

As the procession continued, AJ at last made it in.

The kids walked to the front of the church and sat down, with the pastor immediately delivering the children's sermon to his already-assembled audience. His first question to the kids: What does Hosanna mean? AJ guessed it was the name of the parade. Sorry, no. That's when the pastor told the kids it means save us.

The pastor also told the kids that palms were waved back then, just like we wave flags at parades today. I held my breath, waiting for AJ to say something about flags and army soldiers, but he kept quiet. Until bedtime. During his bedtime prayer he brought it up. "And Jesus, I know they used to wave palms because they didn't know how to make the sticks... the sticks for flags."

I love how his mind reasons!
One other humorous story from church... during Sunday School, we walked through a fairly elaborate "journey to the cross." It was a series of five stations, each designed to help us think about the events of Holy Week and the sacrifice Christ made. At one station, we were directed to put small rocks in our shoes, so that as we walked we would be reminded of the discomfort caused by our sins. At a later station, we removed our shoes and the stones and then dropped them into a jar of water, symbolizing Jesus washing away our sins. Throughout the process, AJ did a good job following directions. When we got to the jar of water, AJ pulled off his boot and tipped it upside down. Let's just say there was a whole lot more sin pouring out of his boot than the couple rocks he'd added a few minutes earlier. I'd had no idea he was carrying around so much gravel in his boots.