The Story of the Cross

Folks have been asking where the image I have been using for a "logo" originated. That story is not so interesting, since it is just a camera shot manipulated on my iPhone of the cross I wear.  But the story of that cross might be.

I received that cross when I was a teenager, just before coming to faith in Jesus Christ.  It has hung around my neck for the majority of 18 years.  I can still count the number of times that I have deliberately taken it off.

The first time I ever took it off was when I played football at Davidson.  Turned out the NCAA had regulations against jewelry, even for the tackling dummies like me.

There was a dry spiritual season of my life, when I did not replace the string after it had rotten.  So I let the cross sit in a box for a couple of years.

I was also required to take it off when I was having surgery on my melanoma.

Over the years, however, the copper has tarnished, the nails have rusted, and in fact at one point I dropped so much weight bench pressing with it on (300lbs) that it bent one of the nails, resulting in a small ripple in the metal.

In Samuel 7:12 we are told that Samuel took a stone and set ip up between Mizpah and Shen.  He named the stone "Ebenezzer" saying "Thus far has the Lord helped us."

Samuel had set up a visual reminder that God had been by his side.  Likewise, for me, this cross has been by my side from high school through college, at my wedding, during Ellie's birth, around my neck at ordination, and the birth of Jack, James and Thomas...but it has also been by my side at a cancer diagnosis, when I have been lost, without work, when I failed...and it has been by my side as I mow the yard, changed a diaper, and watched Seinfeld.