The Cross is Everywhere

Channel 4 television in the UK has an identifier which involves a camera focused on a series of lines – be they power cables, telephone wires, whatever – until suddenly they coalesce to form a recognisable ‘4’. From what initially looks like just a spaghetti junction of lines emerges something with a meaning.

I looked out the window this morning at the bare branches of a tree and saw a Cross. As my gaze panned round the view, crosses were evident everywhere. 

The news these days is bleak, but when we pause and prayerfully take a closer look, we can sometimes glimpse a cross amongst the wreckage of lives and property. A selfless act of courage. A kind gesture. A humble word.

My elderly mother lives alone thousands of miles away from me. I can’t do what I long to do – drop by with her shopping, take her to the movies, organise a weekend away. I can’t even pick up her daily newspaper which is thrown onto the grass about 4 am each day and put it on her front porch.

But someone on her street can. And has been. Two women, one whom my mother has never even met, try to make sure they put her paper up near the front door for easy access. 

These women are answers to my prayers that she would have people round her looking out for her. I have never met either one of them. Linda and Michelle. 

When I look at the potential for violence in the big city where Mom lives; when I think of the severe drought affecting that area and the obvious ramifications which that could mean for peaceful co-existence; when I am tempted to tread the anxious hallways of the mind which all open from the central point of ‘what if...?’; I remember the acts of kindness shown by these two neighbourly women who don’t really know my mother very well and who don’t expect any kind of reward for their thoughtfulness.

There are others in Mom’s life with whom she shares deep and loving relationships, and who also go extra miles to bring her a smile or an ice cream. When I look at Mom, I see crosses all around. Love. Service. Kindness. Gentleness. Patience. Protection. Advice. Friendship. Love. 

The cross of Jesus trumps every evil, real or potential.

God is in his heaven, and all is right with the world. I will not be anxious, but will trust him to do more than I can ask or imagine in the lives of those I pray for today.