Today is Flag Day in the U.S.  It commemorates the adoption of the United States flag by the Continental Congress in 1777. I remember being taught the significance of the flag in school. Thirteen stripes represented the original 13 colonies. Forty-eight stars represented the 48 states. (I went to school a long time ago.)

Though some churches use the Christian Flag, the universal sign for Christianity is the cross. I have discovered, however, the cross didn’t appear in Christian art before the third century. Why? Maybe the early Christians were horrified by the image of the cross. They had actually seen it used as a method of execution. They knew how terrible dying on a cross was.

We seem more at ease with the cross today. There are crosses on most church buildings. People wear crosses as jewelry. I wonder about this. Are we so much more religious than early Christians? I don’t think so. Maybe we have divorced the cross in our minds from the sacrifice of Christ. That may be especially true of some Protestants who are squeamish about using the crucifix as a Christian symbol rather than an empty cross.

Paul wrote, “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14) That’s a thought worth meditating on. Next time you see a cross ask yourself what it means for the world to be crucified to you and you to the world.

Read Luke 9:23-25 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne