Remembering self-given love

AS I look out into the garden from my study window the signs of spring are all around. The warm sunshine of the last few days has encouraged the flowers to open and the burgeoning green leaves to burst forth giving a delicate pale green sheen where brown bare branches had been a few days earlier.

But today the skies are grey and I’m thinking very seriously about turning my heating back on (albeit maintaining the 2°C lower I had adopted to help the climate change).

It got me thinking about how unpredictable life can be and how suddenly this can happen.

For the last few weeks, the Christian Church has been observing the penitential season of Lent.

This weekend, April 8 is Palm Sunday.

This is when we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem when the crowds lined the road cheering and shouting Hosanna, which translated means Save Now.

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, and there is a sudden change, as we recall on Good Friday those same crowds again lined the street, but mocked and hurled abuse, as Jesus carried his cross to the place of crucifixion.

These days are a poignant reminder of Christ’s self-giving love.

This love calls us to walk with Him through the events of the last week of His earthly life, and in a paradox of time to come to the foot of the cross and bring our sinfulness and failings, doubts and fears, despair and grief and lay them at His feet.

The Revd Jane Kraft is part of the ministry

team at St Paul’s Church in Wokingham, writing on behalf of Churches Together in

Wokingham