I have had this small insect in my house for the last few days and posted this picture on Facebook. Someone replied that they weren’t sure about it’s beauty but it was a bit repulsive.
Looking past the legs and tail I see the cross ✝️ The Bible says the cross and all it represents (Jesus dying to take away our sin) is offensive to Jews and foolishness to the educated. So why do so many of us wear a symbol of execution around our necks when we would never think of displaying an electric chair or a guillotine?
The cross has come to represent a symbol of love or maybe just an elegant, simple piece of jewellery. But, like the McDonald’s Yellow M symbol, it is instantly recognisable.
When Jesus called his early disciples he simply said “Follow me”. For these young twenty somethings it was a bit like Alan Sugar calling them to be “The Apprentice”. Imagine being in at the start of what would become something worldwide in its reach; of seeing lifes transformed; going places you’ve never been; doing things you could never imagine; becoming part of a community; hearing amazing story telling and learning key principles. Leaders and recruiters, what an offer for potential candidates!
Then the cross. Not what they expected. The end. Your life under threat. But this isn’t the end, it’s just the end of the beginning. Lifes transformed the disciples helped change the world but ultimately all but one lost their own lifes too, including on crosses.
Two thousand years later, in India, 🇮🇳 Christians pray and see miraculous healing of paralysed people. It is not unusual there. They have an expectancy many of us in the west have lost. But those, particularly in rural areas, see transformed lifes but also suffering. Beatings and being driven out of their villages. The cross brings hope and healing, power and possibility but also suffering, sorrow and rejection. It is, like the insect in my house, both beautiful and repulsive.
60@60 is still open if you want to support persecuted Christians
https://justgiving.com/fundraising/AdrianSmith6060
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