To the editor:

Doesn’t it seem like yesterday the trees started loosing their leaves and now they are starting to bud once again. The past months the trees looked dead but they are very much alive. They are just at rest. I even have flowers blooming.

This week we will celebrate Good Friday and Easter.

Christmas and Easter are so important to all of us and in many cases just forgotten.

When two of our grandsons were little they came to our church on Palm Sunday. Each one went into a separate classroom because of their age. When the lessons ended my daughter and I walked back to get them. There they were both holding Palm Branches. The younger of the two boys held up his Palm Branch and said, “I don’t know what we are supposed to do with this twig!” Before either of us could say anything his older brother spoke up and said, “you weren’t listening very close, that was to fan Jesus if He got hot on the way to the cross.”

Our daughter looked over at me and whispered, “each of those boys need to go back into class and hear that lesson again.”

As I look back to Palm Sunday, Jesus rode on a young donkey into Jerusalem. The excited crowd cut Palm Branches as they went and waved them at Jesus. A celebration for a King. The excitement would soon be over after the last Supper. (communion), Judas’s betrayal, going to the garden where Jesus prayed and then was arrested.

The Palm branches, now withered, once very much alive, now dead. The donkey returned to its owner, the disciples were devastated and scattered.

There was a fake trial, Jesus found guilty. Before crucifying Jesus, they beat Him within an inch of His life. The cross was made from a perfect live tree. Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the whole world forever.

Easter is so nice but if Jesus is left out – it’s not really Easter. Put Him First.

In Him, Carol Dick

New Bremen