The Glory of the Cross

It had never occurred to me to piece the words "cross" and "glory" together in a sentence until I found this amazing painting last year around this time by Thai artist Sawai Chinnawong, whose belief "is that Jesus did not choose just one people to hear his Word, but chose to make his home in every human heart. And just as his Word may be spoken in every language, so the visual message can be shared in the beauty of the many styles of artistry around the world." 

Since then, whenever I meditate on the cross,

this image comes to mind and I want to look deeper

into the meaning and the glory of it all. 

Whenever I look at this, I'm speechless.  To have the vision of the cross in all its glory and be able to represent it by painting this image is such a gift.  I am thankful for Sawai Chinnawong's ability to be able to transfer all that this artwork encompasses into an image that can be shared.  It says so much, too much to wrap words around.  I think I'm going to give up trying and just let it be. 

I printed out a copy of this painting from my computer, cut it out and pasted it in my Freedom Journal.  I wrote "to set me free" around it, along with other words - some were there already (one of my favorite verses, from Habakkuk), while others are words describing what I see in Chinnawong's painting, which I wrote down, cut out, and pasted onto the page. 

"His glory covered the heavens
and the earth was full of His praise.

   And His brightness was like the sunlight;

rays streamed from His hand,
and there [in the sunlike splendor]
was the hiding place of His power." 
(Habakkuk 3:3-4)

From Galatians 3:11-12 (The Message),

"Habakkuk had it right:

"The person who believes God, is set right by God—

and that's the real life."

The death and resurrection of Christ that my faith hinges on is the magnificence of what has been accomplished through God's plan.  My salvation is, as I read here, "one part of a much greater plan," which revolves "around the 'solar system' of God's eternal, cosmic plan." 

There is great beauty and splendor in what the world considered shame.  The act of dying on the cross secured the praise and renown of which Jesus is worthy.  This occurrence is the height of achievement, the culmination of eternity come to earth for us to experience and know wholeheartedly.  This is for us, for our knowing, that our tears will be wiped away and there are promises of glory, of the old gone and the new to come. 

This is what I need to meditate upon until the truth of it seeps into my cells and my thoughts become the freedom I'm seeking, the freedom for which His life was given for me to receive.  Although I cannot say that I understand it fully, I can say that I believe that this is glory, of which Jesus, my Savior, is King.

Hallelujah