A Place Beneath the Cross

Many of us have stood beneath the cross. Sometimes it is the cross of disease and death. If you have ever accompanied someone dear who went through medical test after test, succumbing to the ravages of cancer, and watched the dwindling and destruction of his or her body, you have been at the foot of the cross with Mary. If you have ever had to place an aging parent with a debilitating disease in a facility for the infirm, you know what it is like to stand beneath the cross. If you have been a parent and had a child die in an unexpected, harsh, or violent way, you have known the heartache of Mary as she watched Jesus die.

The “crosses” we stand by may not always mean that the one who hangs there is physically dying. If you have listened and listened and listened to a friend who is journeying back through old wounds, you have been there beneath the cross. If you have lived with someone so depressed that he or she gave up the desire to live, you have stood on the same hill as Mary. If you have watched someone you love become devoured by drugs or alcohol and heard the denials and false promises, you have had a place beneath the cross. Any time you have been with another person who is suffering and have been unable to take the pain away, you have been at the cross with Mary.

When love is the motivation, one can wait beneath a cross for a very, very long time.

-- JOYCE RUPP