One day not too long ago I was distressed and confided to a friend I was having difficulty praying. She brought me a small olivewood cross and instructed, “Just hold it in your hand and keep saying, ‘Jesus, I love you.'”
I did that, and it helped. Each repetition nudged my heart a millimeter in a better direction. About a hundred (or maybe two hundred) repetitions in, I started to notice some things about the cross in my hand.
My cross is small, I mused, And Christ’s was huge.
My cross is smooth, and His was rough.
My cross is light, and His was heavy.
I rubbed my finger over the silken olivewood, and said thank you to God. For focusing on my love of Jesus brought my heart around to a better, wiser, gentler understanding of the difficult situation that had me so upset.
