When I walk my dog in the morning and want to stay in the confines of our subdivision, there are only so many ways we can go.

Sometimes we walk down the street where his doggy girlfriend lives. Usually that route is for the afternoon, but sometimes we head in that direction in the morning.

One day early in the summer, we did go down that street, and I couldn’t help but notice this scene playing out in one of the driveways.

A young man approached a truck in the driveway. He had his lunch bag and was about to leave for the day. He looked like a man, not a boy. Behind him an older man and older woman followed and stood watching him. They went up to him. There were hugs and words exchanged. I couldn’t hear them, but they lingered and talked. Had he been visiting and it was time to go away?

The young man drove off and the couple watched as he backed the truck out of the driveway and then down the street. They stood there for a bit, looking at the street where the vehicle their son drove had turned.

Was he visiting of was it something else? I thought perhaps it was his first day at a new job and his parents were wishing him well, maybe even praying for him. There was something tender in the moment.

But then, we walked on that street again, and there they were, hugging, talking, lingering, driving away, watching. If I walked the dog at our usual time and turned down that street, there the three of them would be. I started to feel like I was kind of part of something I shouldn’t be, so I stopped going that way most days, figuring that I would give them their privacy. I’m sure they didn’t care, but I felt a little awkward walking by them.

This week, on the first day of public school, I unthinkingly went down their street. Sure enough, there were the three of them. Besides his lunch sack, the young man had a backpack and he was headed off to…I don’t know. School, I assume. They hugged and talked. The mom put her hands of both sides of his face. I looked away to give them space.

Of course, on this morning, I saw other kids either getting into cars or gathering at the bus stops in our subdivision. New clothes. Backpacks. Cellphones in hand. High school.

The beginning of another year of school also means the beginning of another year of Kindergarten Bible school for Lorraine and me. We are excited to meet the new children this year and begin teaching about truths of Jesus and the Bible. We are grateful that parents bring them, giving them over to us and the church for a few minutes each week to share with them the wonders of God and the joy of being a part of a church that cares enough to come alongside parents with their children.

This first Sunday, there will be scenes not unlike the scene I walked by of the adult son and his parents in the driveway. Except the children are five years old or so, and parents are dropping them off for a little over an hour. For some, this is a scary parting when we start. There will be some tears. Child hands holding the hands of mom or dad, letting go and meeting us and our teaching team. It’s going to be okay.

Our lesson this week is Palm Sunday. This week’s Bible story says:
People walked behind and ahead of Jesus, praising God with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen. “Hosanna!” they said. “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” The word hosanna means “save now.” The people welcomed Jesus as their promised King. They hoped He would save them from the Romans. Some religious leaders told Jesus to make His disciples be quiet. Jesus answered, “If they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out and praise Me!” Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. People who were blind and people who were disabled came to Him. Jesus healed them. Other religious leaders saw Jesus’ miracles and heard the children saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” They were very angry and asked Jesus, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” “Yes,” Jesus told them. The writer of Psalms had said, “You have prepared praise from the mouths of children and nursing infants.”

We all were once children, then students, now adults. Out of the mouths of Kindergarteners and their Bible school teachers and their parents come words of praise. But not only them. Everybody wants to be rescued from one thing or another. So wave the palm. Throw your cloak into the street as he passes.

So often we long for Jesus to rescue us from our own Roman empires be they private or worldly. Jesus performed the miracles and then he went to the cross, the grave, the sky. Hallelujah. For now, we live in this world, somehow, mysteriously and miraculously citizens of the next. We walk out to the truck, we walk into the classroom, we say goodbye for the day, we drive off to work or school. Citizens of the heavenly kingdom, we live and work in this earthly one. God has something for us to do this day, glorify him, speak of the wondrous works to ears who have never heard.

Hosanna. Save now.