The Shape of Things

There are photography books, currently found in bookstores, that intrigue me.
The books consist of photographs of the alphabet in everyday things.
I found a website for alphabet photography.
I was able to type in my name and see the design.

The “G” was in a wrought iron railing; the “I” was the torch in the Statue of Liberty’s hand.
The “N” was a stained glass window; and the “A” was the Eiffel Tower.

Once your eyes are open to this new way of looking at objects, you never see them in quite the same way again.
I find myself spotting letters as I walk along.

It is especially fun to do this with small children.
When they are first learning the letters of the alphabet, to go on a “letter walk” is quite an adventure.

I was at a major intersection near my home yesterday and was stopped at a red light.
I looked over on the grass area next to the road and there was a sign in an odd spot.
I had never noticed it before.
Whatever the sign said was hidden to me.
The words were facing the opposite direction.

It caught my eye.
A large piece of pressure treated lumber in a vertical position.
A small piece of wood was fastened to the upright in a horizontal position.
The starkness of the wood…the plain form…made me pause.

A cross…right there on the road.

Romans perfected the act of crucifixion.
Criminals were hung in a public place for all to see.
The boldness of the placement of the cross was purposeful.
It was as if to say…this is what could happen to you if you disobey Rome or disturb the pax romana.

In their eyes, Jesus did both.

The placement of the cross that I noticed would have been such a location.
A lot of traffic…a traffic light…making sure that while stopped, you had the perfect view.

I couldn’t get the cross out of my mind as the light turned green and I drove away.

When I came home and went upstairs, I noticed that all of our six paneled doors on the bedrooms and closets, have crosses in the center.
They have always been there, but my eyes really saw them yesterday.

Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. (Philippians 3:18)

Seeing the shape of the cross in things is no guarantee that we understand what took place there.
The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)
On that crude cross, our sinless Savior bled and died.
A substitute…in our place.

Abram and his wife Sarai remained childless for many years.
Yet God promised that a son would be born to Abram.
God told Abram to, Look up to the heavens and count the stars-if indeed you can count them. Then He said to him, So shall your offspring be. Abram believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:5,6)

God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah.
God did indeed bless them with a son named Isaac.
After waiting all this time for a child, God asked the unthinkable of Abraham.

Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah.
Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering. (Genesis 22:2)
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac and he himself carried the knife…Isaac asked his father, The fire and wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham answered, God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. (Genesis 22:6-8)

Abraham was willing to obey the Lord and sacrifice his son.
The Lord called out to him and told him not to do anything to the boy.

Abraham looked up and there in the thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
(Genesis 22:13)

Jesus is our ram in the thicket.
Jesus took upon Himself the full wrath of a holy God…who cannot look at sin.
The sin we all commit every day, was placed on Jesus.
He was sacrificed on the cross, instead of us.
The death that should have been ours…was His…so we might live.

We look at the cross and believe that when Jesus said, It is finished…it is!
We cannot add anything to His sacrifice.
We cannot do anything to improve what Jesus already did.
We are forgiven, when we trust in Him alone for our salvation.

It was not just a piece of pressure treated lumber, vertically stuck in the ground, with a horizontal piece of wood across it, that I saw yesterday.
It was a reminder of the cross that was for me.
The shape of the cross in everyday things.
May I always see it.

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14)