Why The Cross, Mom?

Apr 5, 2022

But mom, why are we kneeling at this big cross?

That was the question my 6-year-old daughter, Keegan, and 4-year-old son, Taj, asked me on Easter Sunday last year, when we were visiting our family’s church in Florida. I had pulled them over to the nearly life-sized cross by the entrance of the church worship center during the time we were given to take communion.

Squatted down on the ground, we whispered a little about what communion means. They looked around, clearly not captivated by my extremely eloquent explanation, and then inevitably up at this huge wooden cross.

“Why was it there?” they wondered.

And, isn’t that a great question? Why the cross? I mean, when you stop and think about it, it’s kinda scary. It was used to execute the one perfect person who ever walked the Earth, and here we are sitting casually by it, wearing it around as jewelry, putting it up as decor…

Now don’t get too upset - there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having the cross around as a reminder. But, as I attempted to come up with an answer for my kiddos about this ancient Christian symbol, two questions bubbled to the surface of my thinking, which have helped me tremendously over the last year:

How DO I view the cross?
And what does it remind ME of?

And here’s how these questions have helped me answer my kids and strengthen my journey with Jesus recently:

In Luke 9:23, Jesus says to His closest followers, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

This verse reminds me to view the cross as an action - one I can take every day - to follow in Jesus’ perfect footsteps. This view brings me closer to His experience of carrying His own cross and helps me focus on taking one step at a time, no matter what’s going on around me.

What is also shaping my ongoing reminder of the cross comes from 2 Corinthians 12, where Paul reports this conversation with God:

God reminds him, “My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness…”

And in response, Paul says to us, “Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.”

Picking up my own figurative cross to be more like Jesus is one thing.

Remembering, as Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians, that our daily cross will most often be big, heavy, and even burdensome with life circumstances and limitations is another.

I think God uses the cross as a reminder for us in this way because we are not meant to pick it up or carry it on our own. Now, as a type-A, first-born, go-big-or-go-home kinda girl, this is hard to comprehend. Because, day after day, I try to do it all on my own.

You know what I mean?

BUT! The cross is exactly where we look to remember that trying to do it all alone is not how Jesus taught us to live. He said the opposite - that when I pick up my heavy cross and admit that I am limited, He becomes all the stronger (and so do I!).

And this is the entire point.

Little did I know how pertinent these reflections would become over the past year. Turns out, the daily cross I began picking up several months ago was burdened with a cancer diagnosis in my 30s.

To most, a diagnosis of this sort would seem devastating. BUT! Equipped with this refreshed perception of the cross, I’ve been able to navigate this part of my journey (one day at a time!) with my head held high, smiling, and full of an inexplicable joy that only Jesus can explain.

As we head into Easter this year, I’ve got an even clearer answer to give my kiddos about why the cross. I hope the cross also serves as a refreshed reminder to you of:

Jesus’ strength thriving in your inevitable weakness.
His light shining through your circumstances as you take it one day at a time.
God’s specific intentions for you, right here, right now. Today.

I’m not sure what you looked at the cross and thought previously, but I pray that you look at it now with just a little more thoughtfulness.