The echo of the Christmas carols is growing dim. Hark the Herald Angels Sing…Joy to the World…Silent Night, Holy Night…those songs sung around the Christmas tree are fading from memory. And in their place are songs which focus on another tree -- the tree of the cross. Come to Calvary’s Holy Mountain…Glory Be to Jesus…When I survey the Wondrous Cross. Christmas is past…Lent is here. But it is the same Christ. The Baby has become the Sacrifice.

This process of “trading trees” happens every year. The joy of the Christmas tree becomes the sorrow of the tree of Calvary. And yet, there is a paradox, because this journey to the sorrowful tree of the cross is also a joy.

It is during our Lenten journey where God reminds us that He has forsaken His Son that we may never be forsaken by Him. It is during our Lenten journey where God reminds us of how He makes that ugly cross, beautiful through the forgiveness of sins won on it. It is during our Lenten journey where God points us beyond the tree of the cross to the open and empty tomb -- to the victory of Easter.

From Ash Wednesday to Good Friday, as once again that Lenten tree is raised on Calvary, we are reminded of how our sins nailed the Son of God to that cross -- and we rejoice in His love and His grace that forgives those sins. As an old hymn says so very well: In the old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, a wondrous beauty I see; For ‘twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died to pardon and sanctify me.
God bless our Lenten journey.

The Cross
I am the cross on the hill, on the wall,
in the embroidery, on the brow.
I am the cross of Calvary, infamy, victory, destiny.
I am the cross of Oak, Tamarack, Pine,
stained, painted, brazed, signed by hand.
I am the dividing line of death and life,
Good Friday and Easter, no and yes.
I am the yes of God, the final say, the door through,
the way to the other side.
I am the cross of people’s yearning, weeping, begging, suffering.
I know the people’s heart.
I am the one who said I will, O God forgive, it is finished.
I am the heart of God.
I am the cross.

Herbert F. Brokering