The Things He Carried – A Cross
A benign piece of wood
that might have been whittled
and fashioned into something beautiful
became an instrument of torture.
Something once living
in the density of the forest
that grew up from a sapling
to become the fine specimen
that was cut down
to provide the means
by which the oppressor’s
death sentence
was carried to completion.
Carried by a sinless man
hoisted up on a hillside
with its human cargo
Jesus
forced to undergo
a public and humiliating death.
Jesus, already suffering
from beatings
physically and emotionally
imagining all too vividly
what lay in store for him
Jesus forced to carry
that rough, heavy piece of wood.
Shouldering the cross
that the world might be saved.
Shouldering the cross
that you and I might know love.
Shouldering the cross
to show what love is.
Such love!
ReplyDeleteAcknowledging that we are all going to die is one thing, but contemplating how we will meet our death is something that few of us will include in our daily thinking!
How would we act and re-act if we knew the journey we were going to face?
How would we show love in the face of our own death? Quite a challenge for us, but for Jesus it was the only way~the way of the Cross. Lord Jesus, our grateful, heartfelt thanks is so inadequate in light of
the love you have poured out on us.