The Easter Cross

Last week, two of my aunts came to visit and one of them brought a beautiful cross made of sheet music and construction paper. Her plan was for us to make more of these crosses as a fun project. I like to call it an Easter Cross because we kept coming up with different parallels between our project and what our response should be to the marvelous work that Jesus did for us on the cross.

First, we ended up using printed copies of music that I have written, both as a symbol of a sacrifice and an offering. We had to cut my music into pieces in order to make the cross, so I felt like I was sacrificing some of my music in order to make something beautiful for the Lord. On the other hand, this act was an offering because I was giving the Lord some of the fruit produced by one of my main spiritual gifts - a gift I would not otherwise have if Christ hadn’t died for me. As you come to Him, the Living Stone - rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to Him - you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5 NIV (Note: if you want to make a cross that commemorates the offering of your spiritual gifts to God, you might use a type of paper or other material that is directly related to your gifts. If you are an artist, you might use your drawings; if you are a pastor, you might use a sermon. If you are a teacher, you might use a worksheet you made or instructions that you’ve written for your students.)

Next, rather than making our crosses individually, my aunts and I collectively made and assembled the parts of our crosses, much as believers work together, using their spiritual gifts, to accomplish the Lord’s work. I spent much of my time cutting lots of squares out of the sheets of paper while one aunt was rolling and gluing them. Meanwhile, the other aunt was trying to figure out how to make the purple flowers for the middle of each cross. How much more of an impact we can make when using our spiritual gifts in harmony than we can on our own!

Lastly, rather than reading directions(their were none to be found), we had to look at the original cross that we had to figure out how to make more of them. We had to analyze and examine each element of the cross to determine its construction. Some design elements were very obvious while we had to dissect and dig to understand others. In the same way, we cannot understand the Bible without first looking to the origin of our faith - the cross of Jesus! Without understanding the meaning and depth of Christ’s atoning sacrifice of Himself and His resurrection that conquered sin, we have no way of understanding the magnificent, life-altering truths of Scripture. When we realize that we are hopeless sinners who have rebelled against our Heavenly Father and we accept the free gift of salvation bought with the precious life of the Son of God, we see Scripture as we’ve never seen it before. We see, with dazzling clarity, that our lives are treasured by God, and created for a purpose. This truth is evident from Genesis to Revelation. We also find marvelous truths that are hidden beneath layers of meaning and discerned only by one attentive to the Holy Spirit - but they are so incredibly worth the effort of digging for them.

At Easter and always, I pray that everyone will know that they were created with love, bought at a price and saved by grace. I pray that everyone with know that Christ is only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in Your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV