Happy Birthday! Today is the 236th birthday of the United States Marine Corps! We like stable things: nations that have been around for centuries, buildings that have lasted for decades or more, people who have been around for decades... Okay, sometimes we forget to appreciate the old folks. But we do like some stability in this chaotic life. How much do you appreciate the cross today? We don't know exactly when some Romans cut down a couple of trees and made one particular cross, but we do know that Jesus died on that cross. The wood of that same cross has probably long since rotted away, or perhaps God is saving it for a place of honor; but honor and remember the cross we do.
The cross did not at first become a symbol of the Christian faith. We started out with the sign of the fish, as in fishers of men. The fish went out of style so much that you might at first be mistaken for a fan of fish fishing when you wear the fish sign these days. The cross took over about 3 or 4 hundred years after the time of Christ. The cross is much older than many of the things we celebrate, such as most nations and organizations. The cross is not as old as some things like the pyramids of Egypt, some other nations, and your mother-in-law. However, how much the cross has aged is not the point. What happened on the cross is a part of it, but who died on the cross and rose again from death is more important still.
As I get older, and that seems to happen to most of us, I find a better appreciation for stability and other old things. I can remember trying to find ways to get out of celebrations and such when I was younger. Standing around for a ceremony, especially when ordered to do so, seemed like such a waste of time. These days a proper ceremony seems to be needed to commemorate these things. The ceremony might be just one or two of us, or even a few more, or something with thousands that I have to watch on the telly, but a ceremony is a good thing. A few important ceremonies will come our way soon. The holy day of Thanksgiving when we take a special day to show our gratitude to God; the Christmas holy day when we remember the birth of Christ, and the day of Christ's resurrection that we call Easter.
On some days we remember the end of something, like we will on Friday for World War I, and other times we remember the beginning like we do at Christmas. The cross was the beginning of something too - the day when our sins were paid for by Jesus and we became free to accept the grace of God. That is quite a beginning!
Bucky
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