Some signs are more full of meaning for us than others.
For some people, a Cross is simply a sin of contradiction--a sign of two
beams going in opposite directions, a meeting place of opposites. For
Christians, a Cross is a sign of contradiction for different reasons. It
is a sign of pain and opposites. By placing His body over that sign,
Jesus put in front of us His loving presence and called us to imitate Him
by giving our lives to the job of getting rid of contradictions that cause
pain. On the other hand, crosses are composed of the vertical and the
horizontal. The first is a heaven-to-earth direction reminding us of
God’s love for us. The other is the east-west direction recalling the
fact we can stretch out our arms to embrace all the peoples of the world.
Jesus, on the Cross, brought God and humanity together. So, besides signs
of contradiction, crosses are signs of unity. Reprinted
with permission from “Little Things Mean A Lot” by Marie McIntyre; all
rights reserved, © 1985.
