Song for Sunday: All Glory, Laud and Honor

Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey and people spread cloaks and palms to welcome him, was four days before the Passover feast. On the first Passover, the head of each household was to take a lamb into his house on the 10th day of the month, inspect it each day. Then, if it was perfect they were to slaughter it on the 14th day, putting it's blood on the door and having his family eat it all before sunrise.

Here Jesus enters Jerusalem, the city God has made his home. Soon he will be slaughtered, having given his life for us. The crowd that hailed him on Sunday turned against him on Friday.

We went Easter caroling today and one of the songs we sang was this Ancient Palm Sunday hymn.

All glory, laud, and honor
to you, Redeemer, King,
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring.
You are the King of Israel
and David's royal Son,
now in the Lord's name coming,
the King and Blessed One. 

The company of angels
is praising you on high;
and we with all creation
in chorus make reply.
The people of the Hebrews
with palms before you went;
our praise and prayer and anthems
before you we present. 

To you before your passion
they sang their hymns of praise;
to you, now high exalted,
our melody we raise.
As you received their praises,
accept the prayers we bring,
for you delight in goodness,
O good and gracious King! 

                     ~Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans, c. 820

What Palm Sunday songs

 do you love?

An Easter Bunny made of ....what?!

We have a neighbor who makes awesome snow sculptures. Spiderman, Superman, Santa... he even colors them sometimes. They are a lot of fun to look at and attract a lot of attention. They should. He spends a lot of time on them and they look great!


Currently, he has a very cute display up. Of the Easter bunny.  

Say what. Easter bunnies are supposed to made of grass and flowers when they aren't made of cotton and stuffed with foam.

There simply isn't supposed to be enough snow at Easter to build an Easter Bunny out of it. Not around here, anyway.

But there is. A combination of late storms and an early holiday. It seems weird, out of the ordinary, almost unnatural. Certainly, it's not the norm.







 You know, though, resurrection isn't exactly the norm either. It is definitely out of the ordinary. People don't die, get buried, stay buried for three days and come back to life. It just doesn't happen.

But it did.

Jesus died for our sins -- sacrificing himself so we could be part of God's kingdom, now and forever.  He conquered death and rose again, three days later.

Weird, but true.


Just like Easter Bunnies made of snow.

*Photos by Jordan Parry (who has become quite the entrepreneur. I had been giving him 25 cents per photo. He negotiated to get 50 cents from now on. *sigh* He's growing up. )

Water

Water.

Just think about it. We all need it, we all use it.


Today is World Water Day.

If you have constant access to safe, clean water, take a few moments to celebrate and give thanks for that fact.

Then, say a prayer for those don't.

There are still families around the world who have no access to clean water at all. Many children still die because of this.

For millions of others, clean water is hard work -- carrying, boiling, filtering.

The technology exists to help. Limited resources, political instability, and war are just a few of the barriers that stop relief organizations from helping. In some places, education about the need for clean water is still desperately needed.

For more information, check this out:

http://view.newsletter.worldvision.org/?j=fe561777726701787311&m=fed016707262047d&ls=fe0a12727566067d70157274&l=fe9315797760057873&s=fe6c16717664057c7210&jb=ffcf14&ju=fe1c177274610c74721379&r=0


So, enjoy water today. Use it with thought and care. It's good for you (if it's clean.)

Your thoughts on water?