Meaning of the Cross
Whenever I see a cross around someone’s neck, I wonder what it means to that particular person. To me, it means a whole slew of things that can be summed up with freedom.
It means freedom from bondage, bondage of self inflicted terror, nightmares from the past or bondage from the acts of others.
Whether real or imagined, the behavior of others can have the power to put strongholds around us and paralyze us into not acting, or acting out in an unhealthy way. In my experience, most us of have this big void in us that we sometimes spend years trying to fill up with different “things”, to help us feel complete.
I have found after many years of substance abuse, co-dependency and abuse of relationships that God is the only one who can and will fill that hole. He was and is my source for all things, and I am happy today to allow his light to shine on any area of darkness in me, allowing the illumination to destroy any and all ugliness.
As for the cross, when I look at it, I see Jesus. The cross screams at me, Jesus, look what Jesus did for all mankind so that we could be reconciled to the Father, not have to live in misery, pain, darkness with sickness and death all around!
Death does not hold that sting anymore, we have nothing to fear when we look at the cross. The cross is all things good and right with the world and I feel unafraid when I look at it.
To sum it up, the cross represents safety. When I look at a cross, wear a cross or see a cross on a steeple or around another person’s neck, I feel not just safe but secure, certain of my future.
I realize that this stranger and I have a common bond, one that is above all the money or luxuries in the world, and that is a belief in a higher power, a creator of the universe, a forgiver of all past, present and future sins, a healer of all illness, and hope for not just the future but the present, Jesus.
The name above all names. And I have to say that when I see that, I cannot help but fall to my knees in gratitude to God, so full of love that He would let his own son die a horrific death in order to save this fallen word. Thank you God and thank you Jesus.
Now what does the cross mean to you?
