Marking milestones (during Holy Week and in life)

Happy Palm Sunday!

Today marks the start of the week of Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection three days later.

His warm reception to Jerusalem as he rode on the back of a donkey is just the first of many milestones for Jesus during this event-filled week. Along the way, of course, he will have a very special Passover meal in the Upper Room with his disciples, ask God to take his suffering away in the Garden of Gethsemane, suffer terribly at the hands of Pontius Pilate's guards following a sham of a trial (during which disciple Peter will deny three times knowing him), suffer and die from crucifixion, then rise from the grave.

Unlike many people, who would rather jump directly from Palm Sunday to Easter, I like marking each milestone in the journey that is Holy Week. I'm not sadistic, I just think it is an important reminder of how much Jesus sacrificed for me. I need to walk "with him" as the story unfolds each year, even going so far as to watch the horrible depictions of his beating and death in the film "The Passion of the Christ" most years since it was released in theaters.

Thankfully, because of his sacrifices, my family and I enjoy an extremely privileged, comfortable life. Which is why we feel called to give back what we can in terms of our tithes and our volunteer time. Yet it will never be enough to compensate for the gift he gave us by dying for our sins. Again, thank goodness for God's grace.

Unlike the major milestones during Holy Week, some of the milestones in our daily lives seem pretty dull and undramatic by comparison. But that doesn't mean they are any less important.

As a spouse and parent, these can include: your wedding day, the birth(s) of your child(ren), baby's first tooth, the first time your child walks or rides a bicycle on their own. All of these milestones were wonderful as Melissa and I experienced them with Sydney and Conner.

This afternoon I marked a much smaller milestone with Sydney: I took her to the fitness center I belong to. She's 13 now and asked if she could start going with me and/or her mother from time to time. So there we were, walking side by side on treadmills in the cardio room. My "baby girl" is no longer a baby.

Sooner than I want to acknowledge, she will be asking for my car keys to take friends to the mall or a movie. (Worse yet, she'll be headed downstairs wearing a formal dress, greeting some boy with a stupid grin on his face and heading off with him to prom -- out of my line of sight and my control. Good thing I trust her, right?)

Then, on a day that's closer than I dare think, she'll be asking me to walk down an aisle with her to give her away to that same boy or some other one.

Whew! That's much more than I wanted to think about today. (Too many prom and graduation news items at work, I guess.) Time to return to thinking about Jesus' journey for a while ...