"Now, what did I come downstairs for? I know I wanted something from the pantry, but what was it?" I stand in front of my shelves of canned good and staples, racking my brain over the item needed.

Brain-racking is to no avail. I finally admit defeat and memory loss, and head back upstairs. I retrace my steps to the kitchen, where I promptly recall the item I wanted. Then back downstairs I go.

The retracing of my footsteps always helps me. That’s the same technique I recommend to my children when they seem to have lost or misplaced something. I bite my tongue to refrain from saying that the glove-book-ball-shoe (whatever the object happens to be) didn’t just walk away! Instead, I suggest wisely (as only a mother can) that they simply retrace their steps, go back to where they last saw the object or played with the object or wore the object. The retracing of their footsteps usually (not always) helps them find that which was lost.

Sunday, April 9, is the Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday. This special day opens up Holy Week for many Christians the world over (our Orthodox Christian friends will observe Passion Sunday one week later). In worship that day we will retrace the steps our Lord Jesus took in Jerusalem as he moved toward the cross to die. Our worship opens up with fanfare and the celebratory mood of those who lined the Jerusalem streets to greet Jesus. But then, we will be led into the solemn contemplation of Jesus’ last supper with the disciples, his lonely hours of prayer, his betrayal and arrest, his trial, crucifixion and death. Throughout Holy Week, we have daily worship opportunities here at Trinity to remember Jesus and the journey he took in obedience to his heavenly Father and out of love for us.

Surely these were hard steps to walk. Yet, because Jesus "walks this lonesome valley," as the spiritual goes, he makes it possible to recover that which was lost—the people God created. He goes to the lengths of life and death to find you and me, no matter how far we have strayed, that he may take away our sins, put an end to the sting of death, and bring us at last into his kingdom.