Brightly Painted Crosses

On the wall of my church study is a beautiful cross that my sister made for me one year for my birthday. It’s artistic – a collage of breaking waves and deep forests. It is inspired by the brightly colored crosses you see all over Latin America – which are painted with scenes of villages and farms and people at work, children at play.

These crosses serve as a reminder that Christ is no longer on the cross but has risen. He is alive and on the loose in the world. He is not only found in church buildings but also in our towns, our cities, our villages, in our work and in our play.

As you go through your day today, may you notice his loving, guiding presence. And, wherever you are, may you remember that he is with you always.

Our prayer today was written by the late Rev. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope ministries. Let us pray: O God of china-blue skies and dazzling sunrises, we wake to a new day filled with promise and possibility. Lord, you come to us like the silent flight of the eagle, as suddenly as a summer storm in the Gulf of Mexico, as imperceptibly as the wind charting the course of large sailing ships. You come to us in velvet gentleness and surprising strength in you Son, Jesus the Christ, whose unconditional love shouts as clearly as a loon’s call across a still lake at midnight.

Lord, as we pray with thanksgiving, help us to share your love with others. If we are carefully calculating the right moment to tell someone, I love you, move us to do that today. Through the amazing grace of the risen Christ. Amen.