Greetings Dear Reader,
Imagine with me for a moment. You are invited to someone’s home. You have been friends for a year and had many
good interactions. This friend invites
you over for dinner. When arriving at
the individual’s home, you note that it is a nice clean place with a well-kept
yard. You ring the bell and are greeted
by your friend and warmly invited into the home.
As you enter you note that the inside is as well appointed
as the outside. The décor is homey and
seems comfortable. Your host takes your
coat and offers you a beverage. The
smell of the meal wafts through the air filling you with anticipation. You take a seat in the den on a comfortable
couch in front of a lovely fireplace. As
you sit, you notice the antique mahogany mantle surrounding the warm
blaze. There above the mantle, hung
carefully with pride is a four-foot tall, jewel encrusted, swastika.
Re-read that if you need to do so. What is your reaction? How do you feel about that moment of
revelation? Unless you have a deep vein
of hatred running through you, there is nothing that can make that particular
symbol beautiful.
Symbols mean something until we water down the meaning and
make the symbol more common than its story.
It used to be, when the symbol was new, that whenever you saw someone
carrying a cross you knew you were seeing a dead man. We have turned that symbol of death and then
for Christ followers hope into jewelry that is common and complacent.
Jesus requires that we take up the cross and follow
him. He insists that if we are to be
effective as his followers, we must die to the things we want that are not part
of following him. Instead we make
following more comfortable so that it looks like the rest of the world. We turn the symbol of death for the sake of
life into adornments to call attention to our look and style.
I carry a cross every day.
It is hidden to everyone but me.
It is to remind me who I follow, whose I am, and where I am headed. I do not always live up to the price of that
symbol but I want to be worthy of carrying it.
I want TO carry it well and have others see Jesus not me. I long to be dead to everything that is not
what Christ has for us as his followers.
The cross is where the Father chose to make life possible
for all of us. It cannot be turned into
something else without detracting from that message and intent. I cannot become numb to the fact that I must
take up the cross daily if I am to follow well.
I want others to see me as dead to my own wants. I want to be worthy of that image. If you want to carry your cross next to mine,
you are always welcome Dear Reader.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every
writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a
home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure
store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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Thorn:
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