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Seeing Crosses

This morning on my walk I was thinking about crosses (note yesterday's post) and immediately began noticing the shape all over: in fence forms, in windows, in house beams, in roads.

Latin crosses in a fence

And in windows on the community shooting house

And in construction beams on an old farmhouse

And an Andrew's Cross on the road

How might we read these cross forms in so many things? First, the purpose for them is for support, strength, stability, and  to connect small things into a larger unit. Sometimes the cross is used as a marker to direct action. Instantly we can see all sort of spiritual relevance. Just as Christ' cross saves us from sin, death and the devil, so we can see the cross form in daily life lending itself to goodness, life and God's glory. In a fence? Yes, even in a fence. Think about purposes of fences and it becomes clear. It is amazing, when we stop to look at things in relation to God and what He has told us, that everything matters. Nothing is small to God. He knows about the small cell, and the tiny mitochondria in it, and the minuscule atoms that make it up. He directs them all. He cares about them all. Why would He not put meaning in all things. You might say it is His hobby, His amusement. It is not a stretch of subjective extrapolation to see the gospel and grace in the cross forms around us. If you and I had a mind so big as His, we would want to exercise it, too. Just because ours are small we excuse our care-lessness, by saying, "I can't be bothered with everything around me and all those people" - which to some extent is true, for things not immediately in our sphere of life, but is not true for those that are. All those crosses could be our daily, on-going sermon on Christ-likeness.
Anyway, it is worth thinking about.

Greek crosses in paving stones on a parking lot

Celtic crosses on a garden gate

Tau crosses on a schoolhouse, with a Latin cross in the center

I noticed that the older the item, the more likely it would have the cross form, More contemporary structures tend to use only parallel lines, without as many crossed intersections. What does that say about technology leading us away from connections, especially our connection to our Savior; "I have means to stand on my own alone" - for a time.

It also occurred to me that cross forms are found in man-made things, not in God-made things. That is, I think, significant. Man needs the cross. God doesn't. Natural things, God-made things, don't tend to have straight lines. What lines there are tend to be curved and to radiate out from a center, or to cover an area omnipresent-ly. We know what the Center is and to whom is radiates.

Lines radiating out from a center

Man-made and God-made lines

 Ice on a frozen puddle; God-made lines

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Here, by request, are some designs for Lent and Easter, and some general cross forms, if you want some more inspiration for your project. The liturgical color for Lent is purple, with black for Good Friday. The liturgical colors for Easter are white and gold.

Upper left: Maundy Thursday. Upper middle: Good Friday. Middle left: Holy Week from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday. Bottom row, left and middle: Easter

All Easter

Various crosses and motifs

Lent and Easter

Easter. The one on the right would be suitable for a funeral, too

Easter, Good Friday and bottom edges.