THE SIGHT OF THE CRUCIFIX

 The Crucifix is beautiful, as it is the Answer to everything. Lately I have been struggling with anxiety disorder, and overanalyzing everything. Even objects around me. Sometimes all the overanalyzing is overwhelming and it makes me feel almost like I'm going insane. Then my thoughts spin and I think about death. And I get overwhelmed some more. However....

Then I think about Christ on the Cross. He conquered death. He conquered our sin. He conquered our overanalyzing and overthinking. Besides, overanalyzing is leftover probably from my days under the heavy burden of Calvinism. God does not want us to find Him in a hidden fashion. He does not want to be found through philosophical proofs, or analysis, etc. He does not want to be "figured out." 

God wants to be found on the Cross. Dying for the sins of the world. 

The Crucifix is a beautiful reminder to me that *there* is my God. The God I do not need to figure out. The God Who came down. The God Who is Man. The Man Who is God.

The God Who conquered my sinful need to always try and figure everything out. The God Who conquered even my messed up brain, and sickness, and death. 

This God conquered my anxiety through His anxiousness in the garden of Gethsemane, sweating drops of blood. 

This God took my pain with every lash of the whip, with His Crown of Thorns, with His precious Blood that flowed down His head and face. 

This God took my sin, my fears, and everything that feels like a heavy mental burden. 

Where is God? He is here, on the Cross, dying for you and for me. 

So etch the sight of the Crucifix in your mind. Luther even says it is good to give one to a dying person to clutch in their hands as comfort. 

This is your God. 

The sight of the Crucifix conquered all. This God Who made Himself vulnerable and continues to as He comes down to us through Words of forgiveness, and Water, and Bread, and Wine. 

We don't just have a cross. We have the Crucifix. We proclaim the Savior Who died for the sins of the world. 

The Crucifix is precious, and is sheer comfort. 

Amen and Amen.