This picture is a distinct reminder to me that I took First Presbyterian Church with me on my pilgrimage to Israel. Not because I specifically thought of you all while I took this particular picture—though I did think of you and pray for you quite a lot on the trip—but because of what happened when I came back home. Nora, our Director of Children’s Ministry, took one look at this picture and said, “I can’t wait to show the kids this picture next year on Palm Sunday!” Palms in the Holy Land. Cool. I wasn’t thinking at all of Palm Sunday when I clicked my shutter for the maybe 350th time—I was simply taking as many last pictures as I could of our beautiful retreat—the Pilgerhaus—on the Sea of Galilee before we left for Jerusalem.

What an awful week here at First Pres it’s been—funerals in threes, one of which was today’s—a man in his 40s with a lot of life yet to live. Palms and crosses and the reminder of empty tombs are most necessary, not only in Lent but for all times, not only in the Holy Land but in all places.

Grace and peace,
Jess