On this Palm Sunday as we enter into the holiest week of the year, we read the account of Jesus laying down his life for us. On Holy Thursday of this week we will recall what Jesus did on that important night. The night before he died, Jesus told his disciples by the act of washing their feet what kind of life he was calling them to live, a life of service.

  I was thinking of this last weekend as I was snowed in and spent a lot of time reading.  One thing I read was about a wonderful woman by the name of Miriam Elkes who exemplifies service and laying down one's life for others. She was the wife of the man who led the Jewish community in the famous Kovno Ghetto in Lithuania during the Second World War.  When one of her sons asked her years later how she had been able to survive so much abuse, horror and death, she replied that she did it by holding on to two objects. "As long as I had these two things with me, I knew I could survive." She said.

   She went on to tell him that these things sustained her body and spirit: One was a piece of bread that she always kept on her person; the other was a broken piece of comb. She kept the bread in case someone she met during the day needed it more than she. If they did, she would gladly give it to them. The broken piece of comb was important to her because no matter what, morning and night, she would comb her hair to affirm that she had value as a person. "When I combed my hair, people could sense that I knew I had value. (Women would know what I mean by this.) Then they would think that maybe they had value too. Those two things - bread and that comb - they fed both body and spirit."

   Miriam Elkes lived in the most horrible situation, yet she was able to "lay down her life for others". She was an agent of hope in what appeared to be a hopeless world.  I think that this is exactly what Jesus was trying to teach the apostles the night he washed their feet. He was telling them to find a way, no matter how small or insignificant, to serve and to become agents of hope for others. As we begin this Holy Week when we commemorate the saving acts of Jesus, perhaps this would be a good time for us to  remember what he has called us to be and to do.