The Littlest Cross

 The Littlest Cross

By Fr. Jeremy

Once there was a man who felt his difficulties, sorrows, temptations, and troubles were far too much for him. He cried out to God about the unfairness of his life, and demanded to be relieved of his cross.

One day, our Lord Jesus appeared to him and asked, “Do you wish to receive a different cross?” The man quickly nodded, so our Lord said, “Follow me.” They spiritually ascended the heights, flying toward a massive Cross, the one true Cross that our Lord bears upon His shoulders; a Cross so great that it fills the entire cosmos and bears the weight of all creation.

Upon this great Cross, in a tiny corner on a little speck of an edge of a splinter, there is a room that our Lord and the man entered. Inside the small room were many crosses of various shapes and sizes. Some crosses were heavily splintered and some had thorns poking in every direction. “Everyone who follows me must bear their cross,” the Lord said. “But for you, I will let you pick whatever cross you’d like.”

The man searched the room, testing the weight and coarseness of the crosses. What surprised him was that all the crosses were impossibly heavy. Even the ones that were not much bigger than his hand were so dense he could barely get them to budge – lifting them was out of the question.

After testing nearly every cross in the room, the man was beginning to lose hope. All the crosses were too rough and too heavy. At last, he found a tiny cross that had been sanded quite smoothly. It fit into the palm of his hand, and while it was heavy, he was able to bear its weight. He turned to Jesus with a smile.

“Is that the cross you want?” our Lord asked. Smiling, the man nodded his head. “Are you sure?” asked our Lord. The man again nodded. “But that’s the cross you’ve always had,” our Lord replied.

—

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor. 12:9-10).


More of Fr. Jeremy's blog can be read here. 

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