The Wonderful Cross

A cross in an interesting symbol. For me, it is a sign of grace, joy, hope, and unconditional love. On a daily basis, I see the cross and I am relatively unaffected by the overall power of the message of the cross, there is one place that has always had a cross that has brought me to my knees; Pine Lake.

The old, rugged cross that overlooks the worship area has been an icon both figuratively and spiritually for many that have stayed here. Even for myself, it has been a place of profound spiritual commitment.

With this said, it is probably expected that I was nearly brought to tears the other day when I heard from one of our guests that the cross has fallen over.

I suppose it is an inevitability that a wooden cross in the outdoors will at some point collapse, but that doesn't make it easy. As I collected the pieces of the fallen and broken cross, I realized that these pieces of wood represented much more to me than just a symbol. It was a monument of my original commitment to Jesus Christ.

As I found out about this news on Saturday, I really had no time to create a suitable replacement. We had a full camp with Grandparents/Grandkids running around and a majority of my staff taking a day off.

Thankfully, and probably by a bit of divine intervention, there was a man from the camp who had worked at Pine Lake in the late 80s. He too had made a commitment in front of the old cross and understood the importance of this symbol to our ministry work here.

After several hours of work, this man with the help of his 10 year-old son and a few others, a new cross was constructed. He had used the same dimensions as the old cross but used a pine tree for the wood. While this may not be the strongest wood (actually, probably the weakest found here), it does make sense that Pine Lake has a pine cross. And it does look very nice.

The remaining top piece of the old cross is now at our house. It will have a place in our home for as long as I live and will serve as a reminder of my commitment to follow Christ daily.