“Save us!” or “Deliver us!” That’s what “Hosanna” means. And that is exactly what Jesus did in the ER that dark Thanksgiving Day and every day for me.
On one Thanksgiving Day, my baby, Hosanna, died in the womb at three months.
The name came to me as I lay in a bed in the ER for eight hours, looking up at the ceiling. There was a large rectangle fluorescent light above me with an image on it. Perhaps you've noticed those during a visit to a hospital or clinic. It was a picture of a beautiful blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Two palm branches crossed over each other, forming the shape of a cross.
Any woman who has experienced a miscarriage knows that it is both physically and emotionally painful and draining. I had contractions (only a woman in labor knows that pain). I lost a lot of blood to the point of nearly needing a transfusion. I wept tremendously. My husband and I looked at each other with wet eyes and blank faces of disbelief and shock, as we sat in silence. We comforted and consoled one another through embraces, prayers, and exchanges of God's promises from Scripture. We shared God’s love and gospel truths with the doctors and nurses as they came and went.
As I lay there, gazing up at an image of the sky on a light cover, a ray of hope shone through the clouds: Jesus. I thought about his deep pain on the cross...far beyond what I was enduring. His weakness...far beyond what I was experiencing. His blood loss...far beyond what I was losing. His suffering of soul...far beyond what I will ever know. But I knew that Jesus knew what losses I would suffer and crosses I would carry in my life. He remembered me, and my unborn baby, as he hung there on the cross.
On Palm Sunday, we join with the crowd who cheered and laid palm branches at Jesus' feet, and the little children who sang out songs of praise and thanksgiving: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna!” And on Good Friday, we are among those who jeered “Crucify him!” and nailed him to a tree, where he breathed his last.
But we know the story doesn't end there – thanks be to God! Three days later, on Easter Sunday, the Lord of Life rose victorious.
“Save us!” or “Deliver us!” That’s what “Hosanna” means. And that is exactly what Jesus did in the ER that dark Thanksgiving Day and every day for me and all people: from the youngest in the womb to the oldest. Christ came to walk in our shoes, to share in and bear our losses at his cross. He came to seek and to save the lost from the power of sin. He came to deliver us from sin, the devil, and death. And he will come again to bring his people home to himself.
No matter the cross or loss we must bear, there is One true and enduring ray of hope shining brightly through the darkness. And his answer to that plea of salvation, “Hosanna!” is always the same:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8).
Grieving the loss of a loved one doesn’t have a timeline. There will be good days and bad days. Jesus even said, “Now is your time of grief.” We will suffer and sorrow sojourning through any veil of tears. But this I know – a season of grief is also a season of hope. If a God of love, mercy, and grace gave his only Son for me and for the whole world – because he “wants all men to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4) – certainly Hosanna is among his dearly loved and saved children and rests in his everlasting arms. And we will meet again.
At times, it’s been hard - even impossible, to say Job’s words “the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” But I can find all comfort and consolation in my crucified and risen Redeemer, keeping my eyes on the skies, knowing that someday his promise will be fully realized: “I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy” (John16:22). For “I myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:27)
Jesus in his birth, life, death, and resurrection is the reason for the season and the hope that we have within us (1 Pet. 3:15). Blessed is he who has come and has saved us!
