The hills were alive with the sound and the feel of springtime. Birds sporting their new coats of feathers gaily sang spring songs while gentle breezes lightly swirled through fields of mountain grass and rustled the leaves of trees. Purple mountain lupines and blue periwinkles did a light dance in the wind.
Me and my best friend, Mathias, love to go tramping in the hills especially in the springtime after a wet winter. Oh, yes, we have to be careful of those pesky Roman soldiers, our parents have warned us about them, but if we stay out of their way, they do not seem to bother tykes like us. One day as we were playing in a ravine near the crest of the Mount of Olives we saw a group of men. Watching as they came up the hill, One of the men caught our fancy, he seemed ‘specially good. He looked like someone that you just wanted to be your friend for always.
We heard him say, “Yonder is the village of Bethphage. As you enter the village, you will find a donkey and a new colt, one that has never been ridden. Go, bring me the donkey and colt.” The men looked surprised, like they were not expecting to hear Him say this. But the man continued speaking, “A man will ask where are you taking my animals? Just tell him that the Master needs them and he will say that you can have them.”

The men suddenly became very excited and two of them rushed down the hill towards the village. The other men that remained smiled excitedly among themselves. Mathias and I watched them quietly.
After about an hour, Mathias said, “Look, Cephas, the men are coming back with the donkey and the colt. What do you think they are going to do with them? And look , Cephas there is a crowd walking up the hill behind them. Cephas, what does this mean?”
Somebody in the crowd took of his outer coat and laid it on the donkey. Others took off their coats laid them on the road so that the donkey would not have to walk on the ground. The men who had first walked up the hill were very excited now, in fact everyone seemed excited. Some people had palm branches, others carried olive branches they were waving them in the air and dancing singing Hosanna to the son of David. Everyone started up the hill, led by the man on the donkey. We didn’t know most of the people, but Miriam’s mom, and Gershom’s dad were there. And if they were there it couldn’t be... wouldn’t be so bad.
“Mathias, do you think our parents would mind if we followed them?”
“I don’t know Cephas, but let’s follow them a short way. We can always come back.”
Someone gave the boys a sprig of olive leaves and they waved them in the air and sang just like everyone else did.

In the crowd, the boys met their parents who seemed very happy. As the procession of people continued the crowd increased in size.
Some mean-looking priest tried to stop people from praising the man that rode the donkey. But He told them, “If the people stop doing what they are doing the rocks and the stones will start singing praises to him.”
“Hey, Cephas, did you hear that, he must be a pretty important person Mathias whispered to me.
Then a strange thing happened, it was almost sunset, as we reached the brow of the hill, Jerusalem had never looked more beautiful, the white marble of the temple took on burnished tones of purple and pink. Even I who enjoy tadpoles and toads had to say this was beautiful. We all thought that He would be happy, but instead he welled up in sobs-convulsing sobs. Oh, grownups are so strange, but stranger yet, my mom and dad, who know everything, didn’t understand what made Him do that.
Two weeks later, we were playing in the same ravine when Mathias told me, he heard his parents talking. “Seems like the priest were angry with the man we had decided would be our forever friend. They killed him on an old cross, Weird things happened the day he died.
Remember, in the middle of the day, how dark it was a couple of Fridays ago?”

“Yes,” Cephas said, “I remember, and I remember the thunder and the lightning, and the awful eerie feeling.”
“Well, that was the day he died.” Mathias continued his story, “ The priest were offering the evening sacrifice and the lamb got away. The curtain that hung in the temple tore all by itself.

No one tore it! My parents said that this man, Jesus, was really God who came to live with us. Early on the morning of the First day, two days after his death, He wasn’t dead anymore God gave Him back his life.”
“What, He was dead and then He wasn’t dead!” Cephas exclaimed.
“ Yes, he was resurec’ed or something like that.” Mathias answered. Mathias continued his story, saying, “Well, My parents said that when he died He became our Passover and he is the only Passover that we will ever need. He died and his blood frees us from sin. If we accept all that He did for us, His blood washes away our sins.”

To Forgive part III