Our Christmas Cross
This was my fourth year of celebrating Christmas with my family using a Christmas symbol as inspiration. First year, the cardinal; second year, joy; third year, peace. And this year was the greatest of all symbols – the cross. What? No, at this time of year, it should be the manger – not the cross! But the cross was on God’s mind when He gave His Son to us.
Representing my faith and love as a follower of Christ, rarely do I NOT have on a cross pendant. I have a sweet gold and diamond-filled one on a chain that my husband gave me for our 40th wedding anniversary; another one, filled for us. Our sin is punished, but we are safe in the shadow of the cross.
Representing my faith and love as a follower of Christ, rarely do I NOT have on a cross pendant. I have a sweet gold and diamond-filled one on a chain that my husband gave me for our 40th wedding anniversary; another one, filled with rubies, was purchased at the Vatican when we visited Rome. One of my most treasured ones is the gold Celtic cross that my husband always wore, and the most recent one is the silver Jerusalem cross that I purchased for myself while in Bethlehem in 2016.
So, then, in celebrating the Reason for the Season, when God sent His only Son to earth to be one of us, I knew the cross would be this year’s symbol. From the manger to the cross – that’s a pretty big deal. The following, thanks to Max Lucado, was included in the individual letters I wrote to each of my children and grands – 12 in all.
The Cross
Can we turn any direction without seeing one? On, or in a church, engraved in a ring, or suspended on a chain. The cross is the universal symbol of Christianity. Strange that a tool of torture would come to embody a movement of hope. Would we wear a tiny electric chair around our neck? NO! But we do so with the cross. Why is the cross the symbol of our faith? Its design couldn’t be simpler. One beam horizontal–the other vertical. One reaches out–like God’s love. The other reaches up to God’s love. The cross is the intersection. God put our sin on His Son and punished it there. “God put on Him the wrong who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Envision the moment. God on His throne. We on the earth. And between us and God, suspended between us and heaven, is Christ on His cross. Our sins have been placed on Jesus. Jesus receives the blow for us. Our sin is punished, but we are safe in the shadow of the cross.
This is what God did for us. He gave His Son. His only Son. I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t offer the life of my child for someone else’s. But God’s list contains the name of every person who ever lived. For this is the scope of His love.
And this is the reason for the cross. “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son” (John 3:16). The crossbeam declares His love. And, oh, how wide His love reaches. Wide enough for the whole world. When asked to describe the width of His love, He stretched one hand to the right and the other to the left and had them nailed in that position so we would know He died loving us.
I pray my precious family loves the cross from here to eternity. When I see the cross, I am reminded how much I need to thank Jesus for taking my place. I pray, with these little tokens, that you are reminded to thank Him, too. Now let’s rejoice in the birth of our Savior as we daily stand with courage and faith in front of the cross, always remembering how joy triumphs over despair, light over darkness, love over evil, and life over death. Love in the manger; love at the cross.”
The gifts I included with my letter included their usual money gift, but illustrating my cross letter, I presented gifts that I wanted to represent the “manger to the cross”. I looked intensely for just the right gifts. I found for the three married couples, statutes of the Holy Family with the Cross behind them and to all the singles, a cross which included vignettes of the birth of Christ to His resurrection. My inspiration for this year’s cross symbol was my trip to Rustic Cuff where I found the sweet beaded silver bracelet with a gold cross on it for the girls and the black beaded bracelet with the cross on the catch for the men. My symbolic inspiration for this year’s gifting, I pray, will be a forever reminder of so great a love as was given to us by Christ.
Do you have a love story about the cross of our Savior? If not, I pray you will soon have one and then cherish what the cross means for you…..from here to eternity.