A Golden Cross

Although Easter has past, this devotion from The Pond in 2016 is what I feel the Lord has led me to post today.

As we approach the Easter season, my mind goes back to a spring afternoon at the pond when I saw a most amazing sight! After getting home from work, I decided to sit out by the pond for a bit and enjoy the last of the day. As the sun began to set, I looked up and beheld a perfect cross of sunlight. The cross was shining bright and golden, while all around it the clouds had turned a mixture of pink, orange and gold. I was speechless as I stared at this beautiful sight. I grabbed my cell phone and took a picture for later proof of what I’d seen. I knew I’d just witnessed the cross after the resurrection for it could not have been so glorious otherwise.

I would like to explore what the cross might have been like at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus. Consider that there were no chainsaws, only roughly made axes or hatchets to use to cut the trees to form the cross. It would seem plausible to expect the cross was very rough, probably having splinters here and there. Physically, a very heavy item to bear recalling that Simon of Cyrene was drafted to carry the cross the remainder of Jesus’ journey. In my imagination it is actually an ugly piece. Even the place had an ugly name, The Place of the Skull. John 19:17, “And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.”

Our Redeemer, Saviour, Shepherd and lover of our souls crucified upon that ugly heavy cross on the hill called a skull! Once nailed to that cross, He was lifted up between two thieves and His garments became the winnings of a game of chance played by Roman soldiers as His mother looked on in horror. We cannot even imagine such shame, humiliation and loss. But even in this solemn scene on the horizon is waiting..HOPE!

HOPE arrived on the third day as it was discovered that Christ was not in the tomb. He had risen! He was changed, His earthly body no longer restricting Him. In my mind I see Christ as almost luminous in His appearance, maybe with a golden shimmer outlining His silhouette similar to what I saw on the cross in the sky. Matthew 28:3 supports my vision, “His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow.”

Jesus was subjected to this horrific death so that you and I might have eternal life. Philippians 2:8, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” An ugly cross, ugly place and an ugly death…for ME! But now, thousands of years after the crucifixion, because of His resurrection, to me that cross has become beautiful. Just like it appeared in the sky, golden and gleaming assuring me of my HOPE in Christ Jesus.

Just as the Living Christ turned an unsightly cross into a thing of beauty, so too, can He turn your life from bad to good. Turn to Christ of the cross, come to Him just as you are and allow Him to beautify your life!