Carrying YOUR Cross

Carrying Your Cross

"Carrying his own cross ..." John 19:17

Years ago I heard a drama regarding this story but never found the in print version. I discovered it in Streams in the Desert this morning ...

"The Changed Cross" is a poem that tells of a weary woman who thought that the cross she must bear surely was heavier than those of other people, so she wished she could choose another person's instead.

When she went to sleep, she dreamed she was taken to a place where there were many different crosses from which to choose. There were various shapes and sizes, but the most beautiful one was covered with jewels and gold. "This I could wear with comfort," she said. So she picked it up but her weak body staggered beneath it's weight. The jewels and gold were beautiful, yet they were much too heavy for her to carry.

The next cross she noticed was quite lovely, with beautiful flowers entwined around its sculptured form. Surely this one was for her. She lifted it, but beneath the flowers were large thorns that pierced and tore her skin.

Finally she came to a plain cross without jewels or any carvings and with only a few words of love inscribed on it. When she picked it up, it proved to be better than all the rest, and the easiest to carry. And as she looked at it, she noticed it was bathed in a radiance that fell from heaven. Then she recognized it as her own old cross. She had found it once again, and it was the best of all, and the lightest for her.

You see, God knows best what cross WE need to bear, and we never know how heavy someone else's cross may be. We envy someone who is rich, with a cross adorned with jewels, but we do not know how heavy it is. We look at someone whose life seems easy and who carries a cross covered with flowers.

Yet it we could actually test all the crosses WE THINK are lighter than ours, we would never find one better suited for us than our own." -- from Streams in the Desert, published by our good friends at Zondervan

My brothers, thank the Lord for the cross that He as asked you to carry. Take up YOUR cross and follow Him today. -- Bill Welte is President and CEO of America's KESWICK

God's WORD for YOU: Proverbs 30; Psalm 129-131; 1 Corinthians 11:1-16

Great Quote: Oh, for the baptism of fire! Oh, for the living coal upon the burning lips of love! 0h, for men and women God-possessed and self-surrendered, grasping God's great idea and pressing forward toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14). A. B. Simpson