What The Harwich United Methodist Church Cross Means To Me
– By Karl E Young  May 2004

Each time I look up and see the wooden cross hanging there  on the wall I remember the day that Rev Dick Davis announced he would like to find two pieces of drift wood.  He said that he would like to have a cross made.  So Barbara Clark donated the pieces and Jimmy Chase coated the wood and put it together and hung it where it is today.

As I look at the cross I see two pieces of driftwood that must have drifted for a long time only to be found and saved until the request went out that there was a need for them.  This remind me of the many people who drift into this church lost or searching to be needed.  How many have found a need they can fill in this church?

I look at the cross and know it is not made of perfect wood.  I also know that each of us is not perfect  and God doesn’t expect us to be.  Jesus died for each of us  knowing that we were not perfect and that we each have weaknesses.  He died  for us expecting each of us to do our best with the talents we were given such as to sing, to write, to speak, to make things and, for some, just to be there when someone cries out for help.  Some are lucky to be able to draw or paint wonderful pictures.  Some go through life never really knowing just exactly what he or she should do.  It matters not for he just wants each of us to try and do our best and be ourselves.

I see a hand pointing to the heavens above.  We must remember to continue to look up and be positive even as we hear so much that is negative in this world.  When times are hard, somehow through  Jesus, we find the strength to go on.   Sooner or later in life each of us will have a cross to bear. It is how we handle it that can make us stronger or weaker.  It is up to us to decide if we want to bear that burden alone or with Jesus help.

I see blood dripping down the cross and a foot at the base to remind me of the pain that Jesus went through.  But he did not go it alone that day.  He called on God who gave him the strength to continue. Even to his last breath, and in spite of it all that they did to him, he asked God to forgive them.  Shouldn’t we not do the same when someone hurts us.

There is much more that this cross reminds me of.  Each time when I arrive here under a different set of circumstances and I look up at this cross and I see it in a whole new light.  I find myself thanking Dick Davis for having the vision of asking it be put together and placed here in this sanctuary.  I only hope that when you,  or someone else, needs guidance  you will come into this church, looks up at this cross, and see in it hope and the answers to your needs, just as it has for me.