Edina Hall

Friends in Christ,

If you have ever been to the Church of the Apostles in Oro Valley, you will have seen the beautiful woodwork of Michael (Mike) Gran.  A faithful follower of Jesus and carpenter like him, Mike created the altar, baptismal font, candle holders, crucifix and more as an outward expression of his love and praise for God and his church. Thankfully, he dabbled in smaller creations and I was fortunate to receive one of them—a nativity scene that can be converted into a Good Friday tableau.  

This weekend, we begin our exit of ordinary time and enter into the advent season. This transition finds us in today’s readings with Jesus at his triumphant and final entry into Jerusalem. Riding on a colt, this dramatic entrance bookends his life with faint echos from the more subdued entry of his mother on a donkey into Bethlehem. It can feel a bit like whiplash as we turn away from the end to focus on the beginning, but for me they are, like Mike’s nativity scene/Good Friday tableau, intertwined. 

Advent is a time to prepare for the coming of Christ and, as we know, it is more than just welcoming an infant into the world. It is welcoming the whole journey from donkey to colt to being crucified on the cross.  

I don’t know if Mike was thinking about all of this when he created this piece, but it reminds me that Jesus is “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Revelation 22: 13)

Amen.

Let us end and begin again,

—Edina