Souvenir?

Hello, Friends and Family. It has been 3 weeks since my last post. I could use this entry to fill you in all the details but it would last forever. I will give you a brief outline then I have something I want to share with you from my heart.

Not in chronological order:

• Kevin had H1N1, a new job assignment with IBM (we don’t have to move), diagnosed with diabetes, currently has bronchitis, and overall has continued to work, provide and be a wonderful dad and husband.
• Cory has had Tonsillitis and Strep at the same time, continues to work a Best Buy, struggles to meet rent each month, continues to thrive in college, hasn’t lost faith, spent some time with great friends, and continues to help and love on his mama.
• Tim is living at home again, eating more meals with us, seems healthy, can’t say much about grades but goes to school, controlling his language, maintains his job, went to a Sunday service with us and actually made some positive comments, and he celebrated his 18th birthday with a birthday breakfast, a time of shopping, and shared some time at home with his girlfriend and us. I have received "less prickly" hugs and he has said “thank you” many times in these past few weeks. I have hope.
• Anna is now employed as a receptionist for my doctor. She has fractured her foot. She has spent a lot of time in bed after work and on weekends reading and such. She can’t wait until her foot heals but it doesn’t seem like it will be soon. I may have home cooked 3 decent meals and a thanksgiving dinner, which came out great but spent the next day with her foot up. I saw a great movie, Blindside.

So the last 3 weeks have been eventful, I however remain faithful in my gratitude…not without a few struggles to refrain from asking God “Why?”

 

This morning I am sitting at my desk. The sun is brightly shining through the blinds. I have been looking forward to writing my blog. I knew I wanted to write something to encourage my readers and starting thinking, and then I see it! It’s shining like a rainbow. Amidst the paper clutter and other strewn items that have gather from my neglected desk is a cross. Kevin and I had gone to a local church yard sale. Kevin had found this cross and thought I would like it. He put it on my desk until I would be able to find a home for it. This morning it was something beautiful that caught my eye and my attention.

 

Friends the cross is about four inches tall. It is made of some type of light wood, and covered on top with abalone.  On the back, are 14 circles etched with some Hebrew? Symbols and stamped Bethlehem. Obviously this is a souvenir from Bethlehem. This cross has me thinking. Though it is lovely and somewhat precious, the cross of Jesus was definitely not pretty.

  

I was thinking at one point in the last 2 weeks how my foot with its fracture hurt so badly. I thought of Jesus. Thinking back on the movie The Passion, I was remembering a beaten man with torn flesh, and who knows how many fractures, walking and holding a wooden cross. This was a movie portrayal but effective in the in the vicious and brutal picture of Jesus carrying HIS cross. His pain had to have been horrific.

  

Earlier in this blog I outlined a life not without some strife and inconveniences, but who am I to even complain one minute for some pain?

  

I imagine the cross was wooden, rough, splintered, and dry. It was “…an old rugged cross.” Jesus was laid upon it with open flesh, peeled skin, and fractured bones. A crown of thorns stuck in his head, digging and piercing His skin. He was NOT clean with wiped smooth skin and clean fresh hair. Large, thick nails, if you can even call them that, were hammered…pounded through his limbs and feet, the weight of His body pulling the wounds of his wrists up into His hands.

 

After Jesus was removed and taken to the tomb the cross remained, blood stained, and dirty, and it was an ugly symbol of death and sacrifice.

 

We as Christians celebrate His rise from the dead and into the glory of the right hand of our Father God. We smile, we praise, and we love the thoughts of the victory over death.

 

This morning I look at my pretty cross and I though I like it, it does me no good. I need to remember the real cross and embrace the ugliness and pain. I need to make “real” in my mind that Jesus hung on that cross for my SIN. The very sins I choose each day. The sins I make when I choose out of my sin nature vs. depending and living in the Spirit.

 

I praise Jesus for victory over death and for His ascension. I also praise Him for the reality of the cross. I need to ask myself "Why do I want to choose my sin nature, my way, my rights, and my self appointed “deserves”?" I need to daily remember the cross and not make a mockery of His death…His sacrifice for mankind to have a personal relationship with Him…God.

 

This lovely cross will remain in my home but it has new meaning. It will now mean Holiness. A quest to hold Jesus’ cross high and lifted up. To shine with purity, cleanliness, and righteousness that was afforded to me by the “…old rugged cross.”

 

Verse 3> In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, a wondrous beauty I see,for 'twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died, to pardon and sanctify me.
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