Carrying Crosses

Jesus is condemned to carry a cross. This wooden shape was created for one thing...torture until death. The Romans made an art of creating ways to execute. They took pride in their punishment. The cross...it was the most horrific way to die...and it was chosen to be the place where Jesus would take his last breath.


The cross was a symbol of death. You would never have found a cross hanging on the wall in someone's home or worn as jewelry around a neck. Today we could liken it to the electric chair...not something we would replicate in our homes...even have a picture of somewhere. The few times I have seen an actual picture of one...I shudder.

Take a walk through you home. How many crosses do you see? The scriptures tells, "take up your cross and follow me". I am torn by this. I can almost feel shudder beginning. My friend once said that there was a time she didn't really get it. She just wasn't sure why others thought following Jesus was so great...after all his life did not end so well. I thought...you got me there.

This is a hard teaching. Learning that Jesus creates beautiful things from what we consider horrible. It is a true mystery how this works.  The cross is the ultimate symbol of this.  Only Jesus could take something as horrible and gruesome as death on a cross and make it a beautiful symbol of our faith.

Lord, help me to realize that the crosses in my life...those things that I would rather avoid...these are the things that your want to use to make something beautiful.  Show me how to surrender those things to you.  Thank you Lord for the cross, for your power to make what I think is terrible into something incredible...Amen.

Beautiful Things by Gungor