We are marked with the sign of the cross at our baptism, marked as Christ’s own forever. While we may not realize it at the time of our baptism, and certainly not if we are infants, the sign indicates the shape our lives will take as we are conformed into the image of Christ by God’s transforming mercy and love.

A cross is made of two beams, one vertical, one horizontal. The cruciform shape of our lives is designed in the same way. The vertical beam lifts our eyes to God with worship, praise, adoration and thanksgiving. It keeps us focused on the Source of All, while keeping us firmly planted in the Ground of our Being as we make our journey through time and space, from the Alpha to the Omega. The horizontal beam stretches our arms wide to embrace the needs of those around us with compassion and agape love. It invites us to embrace all of God’s creation as we allow God to use us as God’s hands and feet in the world, as we become an incarnation of God’s love in the here and now. The horizontal beam reminds us that just as it cannot hang alone, just as it needs the vertical beam to hold it up and make it into a cross, so we need the steadfast love of God to make us whole and holy.

The center, where the two beams are joined, is the sign of divine union, that place in our lives where God chooses to dwell with us in mutual love. It is from the grace of the Center that our hearts are opened to the awareness of the presence of God in our lives, that selfless love and compassion become manifest in us as we accept the healing touch of God working deep within. The cruciform life doesn’t appear overnight. It takes a lifetime to live into—one day at a time.