Homesick, Heavensick, Hosanna

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Linda Belton might fight me and say that time is Christmas, but I must disagree. Easter caps it all. I love everything about the season. I love Easter eggs and baskets and pastel colors. I love the spiritual practice of lent and choosing to fast to focus on Christ. I love Palm Sunday and all the guests at church. I love all the lives that get jump-started that day. Most of all, though, I love that there was a man who loved me enough to die for me. And I love that He didn't stay dead.

Today is Palm Sunday. In the Christian Church, Palm Sunday remembers Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. On that day, people laid palm branches and cloaks on the ground and shouted "Hosanna!" as Jesus rode in on a donkey (Matthew 21:1-11). Palm Sunday kicks off what is called Holy Week, which takes place the week before Easter and remembers Jesus's last days on earth.

Palm Sunday has always been one of my absolute favorite days of the year. Back at Columbia Grove, it's an extremely creative service. We'd walk through Jesus's last week in moving ways. Kids would dance around the aisles waving palm branches. We'd have lights and shadow puppets, dramatic reading of Scripture and intense music. The elements of the Passover Meal would be available to eat; you could wash others' feet, write a letter to Jesus, take communion, or participate in other interactive worship elements. I looked forward to this "Passion Meal" more than almost any other day of the year. For me, it was always an intense, intimate time with God. It prepped my heart for Easter by reminding me of what a brutal, agonizing sacrifice Christ made on my behalf. And today, for the first time since I was twelve, I missed it.

Today more than any day emphasized how much I miss Wenatchee. I just got back from a phenomenal spring break full of service in Denver with InterVarsity. While I'm so, so glad I went, I must admit the day before I left I realized with sudden clarity that I could have gone home. I struggled a bit all week with both having tons of fun and desperately wanting to be miles away. There's a lot I don't get to participate in over here. I missed my mom's birthday. Jarred was sworn in to the Marines last night and I didn't get to watch. I find myself wishing Travis was around with his quirky humor. I miss my middle school kids and my Meghan coffee dates and my Thompson movie nights and my church family. By golly, I missed Palm Sunday. And that makes me very, very sad.

I'm just homesick.

Here's the thing I've been wrestling with, though: I should be more homesick for the kingdom of God than I am for Wenatchee. My homesickness doesn't help anyone; it just makes me mope around so much about missing a church service that, in my selfishness, I almost miss the point of the day. Homesickness for Jesus's kingdom, however, inspires me to move and work in our world. It makes me realize how desperately important this coming Sunday is. In a way, I need a dose of "heavensickness". (Yes, I realize I just made that word up.) I should long for the world to look more and more like the one God created it to be, and I should act on that longing.

There are elements of this earth that are absolutely heartbreaking. People don't have clean water. Others go to bed hungry. In Denver I spent part of a day folding children's jeans in a clothing bank. It broke my heart that those jeans represented kids that may not have a roof over their head. It broke my heart that those jeans represented parents that possibly struggled with feelings of failure because they couldn't afford to buy their kids new clothes. This isn't what I want the world to look like. This isn't the way God made the world to be. But it's exactly why Jesus needed to come.

So on this Palm Sunday, I find my heart shouting hosanna. A Hebrew word that means "save," hosanna is mostly used as a word of praise. I look at the brokenness in the world and my heart cries out, "Save, Lord." I look at the brokenness in my heart and desperately shout the same thing. I look at the cross, though, and realize He already did. And for that I can't help but be overwhelmed with praise- praise that Jesus came, lived, died, rose again, and most of all, saved.

Let's wave our branches today, friends, because no matter what you're going through, God still saves. Let's prep our hearts together for Easter. Let's ask for a dose of heavensickness, that we would remember why this world needs Jesus and just how important the message of Easter is. Let's give Him entry into our lives this season. Let's let Him save.


Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!

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