A Cross For Christianity??

In today's world we see crosses everywhere. On top of churches. Carved into headstones. Engraved in a ring or suspended on a chain. Even on the backside of cars. The cross has been adopted as the universal symbol of Christianity. If you stop and think about it a cross is an odd choice to use as a symbol. It was used as a form of torture and eventually death. So how did it come to epitomize a worldwide movement of God's hope and love? Symbols of other faiths are more pleasing: the six-pointed star of David, the crescent moon of Islam, even a flower for Buddhism. A cross for Christianity? An instrument of execution? It's a little bizarre don't you think?

Would you wear a tiny electric chair or a hangman’s noose around your neck? Would you hang a picture of a firing squad on your wall?  Well we do this with the cross and never even think twice about it. So I'm THINKING about this. Spending time to ponder why Christians chose the cross as a symbol of our faith.

                                                                                     

I found the answer to my question. {DISCLAIMER: This is my opinion, so take it for that alone.} I didn't have to look any farther than the cross itself. Simply designed, one beam horizontal the other vertical. Crossing in the middle. Think about that for a moment. I keep picturing that massive statue of Christ in Rio. You know the one, it's up on that mountain. One beam, spread wide like God’s loving arms. The other reaching up towards God’s perfect love. The cross, for me, displays how wide His love is for me, God's endless love and our need of Him.

                                                                                      

The cross is where God forgave ME. God put my sin on His Son and absolved it there. On that Cross.
“God put on him the wrong who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God”  II Cor. 5:21. How wonderful and marvelous is His love for me. He made a way for me to live eternally....what JOY! What a day of rejoicing that must have been when Christ rose from the grave and won the victory! {It sounds like I am about to burst into singing an old hymn any moment now!!}

This Easter remember the sacrifice Christ made for all of mankind. Ponder It...He died for you and me. Through His resurrection, if we accept by faith, man receives eternal life. It is a GIFT. I pray on this Easter day that God's love is resurrected, reborn and renewed in your heart.

My sweet sister, Stephanie Coleman, took this picture a couple of weeks ago. I love it....just gorgeous!