We all love parades! I have old 8mm movies of my Dad marching in a parade in 1954 in downtown Omaha with the Plasterer’s union. My Mom took my sister and I to watch the parade and we sat on the curb for what seemed like hours. We were both bored out of our minds. But when my Dad got to where my sister and I were sitting, he called for us to join him as he walked down the street. It was a very proud moment of my life. My sister and I flanked my dad who was dressed in his white plasterer’s clothes, just like the 50 other men in the parade, and we laughed and waved at everyone on the curbs and sidewalks. I was only 7 years old, but I’ll never forget it. I’m left with the 8mm movies, and the emotions of walking beside my Dad for everyone to see. I was no longer sitting on the curb watching others, but I was part of something and it changed the experience entirely. I was overwhelmed with the goodness of life and it touched me in a way that I’ll never forget.
I always think of a parade when I think of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem as recorded for us in Matthew 21. The atmosphere in Jerusalem when Jesus entered was like that. One writer described it as “Lots of children probably sat atop their father’s shoulders. Others were running here and there, peeping through legs, pushing and shoving for a good view of the most famous and controversial person in Palestine who was passing by on a four-legged convertible.”
Jesus once said he came “to give us life, and to give it abundantly.” I like to think of Jesus calling me to get up from the sidelines and walk with him in the parade. I believe he wants to enter our lives, in much the same way He entered Jerusalem. It was 32 years ago today, November 12, 1978, that I heard Jesus call me from the curb to come and walk with Him. And life has never been the same!
Chuck
“And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Matthew 21:9