Palm Sunday: the beginning of Holy Week.
During this season two years ago our family was rocked by the news that my sister had a brain aneurysm and would need emergency surgery. She came through the surgery great, but then suffered bleeding in the brain and a secondary, stroke-like brain injury, which disabled her left side and left her speechless.
That was a really, really tough time. I started a CaringBridge journal so that friends and family could follow Debbie’s journey and pray with us. Recently I was thinking back to those entries and thought it would be appropriate to share the Palm Sunday entry today.
“I was thinking this morning that I have been trying to be fairly circumspect in this journal, so as not to send all of you on the roller coaster ride that we have been experiencing this last week: she's better, she’s worse, better, worse....
“But then it occurred to me that Holy Week itself is the ultimate roller coaster ride. One day Jesus is riding into Jerusalem to the praises of the people, the next he's throwing people out of the temple. The people are listening to him with delight while the authorities are trying to figure out how to get rid of him. A woman anoints his head with expensive perfume out of sheer love, and Judas leaves, offended, to betray him.
“Up, down, up down. All parts of the journey are important to understand, important to experience.
“So I decided not to worry about smoothing out the ride for you all, but to just share what we know each day, our sorrow and worry one day, our joy the next; new fears and concerns, new hope and excitement - all as it comes. We trust you to weep with us when we weep, and to rejoice with us when we rejoice. And we all thank you, very much.”
Today my sister, after a long rehab, is walking, talking, and working full time. She has had an amazing recovery! She is a quieter version of her old self, but still the same Debbie I have known and loved my whole life.
I know a lot of people who are on a roller coaster ride right now: the bittersweet celebration of a loved one's life at a funeral; a cancer diagnosis and hope for treatment; the excitement of a new baby and the shock of his birth injuries. It is a season of mixed joy and grief for many. Sometimes the best thing we can do is just be there and go along for the ride. Weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice... often the same people.
It’s Holy Week. Hang on: it might get bumpy!
Very True!
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