We just celebrated Palm Sunday. A cherished Palm Sunday traditions is children waving palm branches as they process into worship. This of course reminds us of the palm branches used to cheer Jesus as he entered Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday.
I was thinking about this idea of palms. We are blessed to live in the Palmetto State where palm trees grow. In fact, there are two palm trees in my yard. Even so, we must order palms branches for Palm Sunday for there to be enough to go around. But what do you do when palms are unavailable?
We know that as recently as the 16th century Christians in northern Europe cut branches from whatever trees were handy as part of their Palm Sunday worship. In places where palm trees did not grow and the importation of palm branches was an unaffordable expense, average Christians came to worship on Palm Sunday waving the branches of oaks, or elms, or willows, or whatever else was available. When palm branches were not available to praise God, people used what they had.
There is a lesson in this for us. What can you use to praise God? The answer is simple – praise God with what you have.