Above my front-facing window in my living room, I have a wall covered with a variety of crosses. Big ones, small ones, white ones, blue ones… Nineteen of them in all.
I don’t hang them because in doing so I think I’m being more pious or spiritual, nor are they there as some sort of reminder that, oh yeah, I’m Christ’s. Actually, I think the reason they’re there is purely aesthetic, even artistic, for while the cross is one of the simplest icons — ✝ — there is endless possibility in it. If they all looked the same — ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ — the display just wouldn’t have the same spirit as it has, but with the variety that is there — ✙ ✚ ✛ ✠ ✞ ✜ ✟ ✝ — the display becomes interesting, even beautiful.
I guess in a way, the variety in these crosses represents us believers, each of us being called to pick up our own crosses in the name of faithfulness to Jesus Christ. The call is the same for each of us, but our circumstances may be vastly different… We’re vastly different.
Some of us are metal, some porcelain, some plaster. Some may be chipped, some rusted, some dirty. We may be white or black, silver or gold. Yet it is the cross itself which remains the unifying factor, for it is the cross which reveals our most common characteristic:
We need Jesus. In Him we find forgiveness, divine absolution for our sins, sins which regrettably are another common factor among all men.
What does your cross look like?