Focus on the Cross:

I really love being a Sunday school preschool teacher.  I love getting to work with really young children for an hour a week.  It is definitely a change of pace from my usual of working with high school students.  However, I have definitely had a lot of learning when it comes to teaching a younger age.  I have to think through the lesson for younger minds for them to really understand all the love that Jesus has for them.  Jesus told his disciples to learn from the little children, and it is a very easy thing to do.  I take away something every time I work in the Sunday school room.  

I will often do a worksheet with them that comes from working packets through my particular Sunday school curriculum, as well as read through the lessons.  On this particular day, I was doing the coloring activity with the kids where there were so many shapes, but they were only supposed to color the shapes that included a small cross.  All of the other shapes were supposed to be left alone.  The question and topic was “Who alone should be worshiped?”  When the kids got done coloring the shapes that only had the crosses, it of course, spelled out and showed God. God is the one alone who should be worshiped.  

I loved this activity.  There are many times where we as leaders can be impacted more than the kids.  I really loved that the image was obscured, until we revealed the shapes that solely had the crosses.  This made me realize that there are many times our circumstances can get blurred, and we can become distracted by all the crazy events in our lives that we find it very hard to find Jesus amidst it all.  We know he is there, but many are hard to see.  There is just too much happening.  The stress, the anxiety, the jobs, the people in our lives, and anything else just seem to get in the way.  

Then this lesson was reinstated when I attended church.  We are going through Genesis, and the story of Abram (soon to be Abraham).  We are in chapter 15 verses 1-6.  The Lord came to Abram and provided him with an amazing sentiment and promise:  “Do not be afraid, Abram.  I am your shield, your very great reward.”  God promised Abram that he would be his shield and he would be the reward of his life.  He didn’t need anything else because he had the Lord. However, Abram does not necessarily respond with immediate joy.  He will later, but first he is focused on something he does not have, which is an heir.  He doesn’t yet have a child.  

I am not going to say this would not be difficult.  I have personally never had a child, but I also have never had a desire to have a child, and I don’t have a significant other at the moment to desire a child with.  I can not say what it would be like to continuously desire a child, but to not have one.  That being said, how amazing that Abram just had the experience with the Lord.  He just had the Lord talk to him and tell him that he will be his shield and his great reward, yet he is not completely awed by his presence.  He is not 100% content at the sight of God.  He is still thinking of earthly desires, even if it is a very pure and wholesome desire.  

One verse I want to highlight that reminds us to focus on the cross that pops up later in the Bible is Matthew 6:33.  This says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and then all these things on earth will be given to you as well.” Abram would learn how to seek God’s Kingdom and righteousness and this is why he would be blessed and gifted in so many ways.  Of course, if we know how the rest of the story goes, we know that Abram does eventually be called Abraham because he is a father of so many.  He has a child named Isaac, but through him, there would be the whole kingdom of Israel.  Because eventually Abram learned how to trust God and to believe in him being the ultimate savior and the ultimate glory, then he got everything he also could have wanted in the world.  The Lord did end up using him to be a great father to a great and mighty nation, that ultimately would be where Jesus came from.  

I know I have been incredibly distracted by many different items in my life.  I have been so very anxious about my future career and where I will go on living.  I have been so focused on what I should do, what my parents want me to do, and what would get me the most money.  I have also been distracted by my stress with my current job and my current life situation, that I often get so in my head as opposed to thinking about focusing on the cross.  I want to do the job that God has planned for me and for his glory.  I want to focus on the cross as I seek to fulfill this next calling in life.

The truth is we are going to always have other things in the world that are going to be distracting and are going to be in the way.  The great thing that we need to learn is how to focus on the cross, even in the midst of the business and the stress.  Even when we are busy, and we are surrounded with people, we need to find ways to focus on the cross.  Even when we are discouraged, we can find a way to the cross.  My challenge for you this week is to think through what your main distraction is from the cross.  Write it down, say it out loud, or tell a friend.  It is important to know those distractions.  Those distractions can become weakened when their presence is known.  The cross is always there, even if the image does seem a bit obscured.  I pray you see the cross daily in your life this week.