On these fresh spring mornings in the foothills of Colorado, the songs of the Western Meadowlark and the Robin are especially vibrant in the fields and trees. Out of my hazy-eyed slumber to the beautiful lilt of their notes, it’s always a joy to awaken to their beautiful singing announcing the day.
And, so it goes with the grasses and trees upon which the birds build their nests. It’s always glorious when out of the bareness of winter, pop the first green musings of springtime. It’s almost as if those wooden branches sing their own visual songs by spontaneously sprouting a cacophony of leaves.
Joy returns in the greening of the earth!
I am reminded of the dove returning with an olive branch to the ark of Noah.
In the evening the dove came back to him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had lessened on the earth.
–Genesis 8:11
Olive trees and olive branches are symbols of peace and reconciliation that go all the way back to Noah and the great flood.
In ancient times, in the region of the Mediterranean, olive trees provided food, lamp oil, medicine, oil for holy anointing and worship, and wood for furniture. Likewise today, the olive is highly prized for its oil in culinary cuisine, liturgical anointings, and to promote good health.
In the Christian Tradition, Palm Sunday signals the start of Holy Week when believers carry blessed olive branches and palm fronds to symbolize Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem when the people respectfully laid them on the ground as Christ entered the city gates. The days that followed that reverential tribute 2000 years ago turned abruptly violent with the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday and then, his miraculous Resurrection and Ascension at Easter.
On the next day, when the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel.”
–John 12:12-13
I find this stone engraving of a dove carrying an olive branch just outside the Catacombs of Domitilla in Rome especially worthy of meditation.
I wonder whose hands chiseled the image into the ancient rock just outside the burial tombs and if their heart was heavy with loss or encouraged with hope. To me, the image is relevant today because it symbolizes the hope of peace for our war-torn world, the conflicts within families, neighborhoods, work places, schools, and nations.
Alas, the earth is greening in the rhythm of creation. Joy will be forever found in birds that sing, buds that leaf,
and
the Spirit of the Risen Christ.
Happy Easter and Passover to all my Christian and Jewish friends.
Thanks for stopping by. ♥