Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must take up his or her cross and follow me.” Matthew 16: 24
Every one of us woke up today alongside a cross, our own personal cross. We didn’t leave it in bed; we didn’t check it in the garage. It’s right here next to us.
We all have stuff to deal with. It may be a physical or emotional illness, or the loss of a loved one, or betrayal by a friend. It may be poverty or unemployment, or any one, or a combination of several different sorrows. Whatever it is, it is our own personal cross. But if God is really all powerful, and if God truly knows and loves each of us unconditionally, why do we have these crosses to carry? Many years ago, I witnessed an event that has helped me to deal with this question.
When our children were in nursery school, Wanda and I would occasionally take turns volunteering as ‘teacher’s helper’. One day I was in a classroom filled with preschoolers playing happily by themselves with building blocks. I saw this one little girl who was happily singing and building a tower of blocks that was almost as tall as she was. Suddenly a little boy came by and knocked down her tower of blocks. They scattered all over the floor. That little girl cried her heart out. At that moment in time, and in her child-mind, her whole world had come to an end. She was inconsolable.
As I looked on with sympathy, I knew that her moment of sorrow would pass and be forgotten; I knew that she would build and enjoy many more towers in her life. Witnessing that scene gave me insight that remains with me today. Not to minimize or liken them to child’s play, but the crosses that we carry, the bad things we endure in life, are locked in a moment in time – just like that classroom. But God, as well as each one of our immortal souls, is timeless. And God is with us here in time, holding our hand through the suffering and leading us home amid the crosses.
God is present at the center of our own personal cross just as surely as God was present at the center of that cross at Calvary on that first Good Friday. And some day, when we are safe in God’s embrace for all eternity, all the crosses, all the pain and suffering we are experiencing in life will somehow be forgotten. If we could see eternity and the timeless love that awaits us with God, the crosses that we now carry would seem so much lighter.
There is no resurrection without the cross.
And we all have at least one. Let us continue to take up our own personal cross each day, at peace in the knowledge that Jesus is always walking with us, holding our hand, leading us to our own resurrection; leading us to a place where there will be no more crosses.