For our midweek meditation this week, I’d like to share the following Easter season reflections from Cindy Deere, who had shared this with the Eve Circle a few weeks ago. May you be blessed by her words as I have been. – Dave

A few weeks before Easter, on a Saturday morning, I was decorating my house for the occasion, and I came upon a wooden cross. The cross was given to me at Easter by a friend many years ago. It was made by her father, R.H. “Red” Bond, who was a well-known lay minister in a Methodist Church in West Tennessee. He was known for his wood-working abilities and had been asked by his congregation to make a stand-up cross for the sanctuary.

As I was dusting it off to display, I noticed there was something written on the bottom that I had forgotten about. The message stated the inspiration for his cross. He had heard of a pre-Civil War mansion along the Mississippi River that had an ivory button symbol inlaid on the top of the stairway newel post. The inlay was known as a “Brag Button” and signified that the land, buildings, and contents within the mansion were debt-free.

When fashioning the cross, he stated he had a vision of an inlaid symbol called a “Love Button.” It was to remind everyone that on the cross at Calvary, “Jesus paid it all.” Our sin debts now were “paid in full.” It just so happened that the Sunday after rediscovering the cross, the theme of the sermon was “Jesus Paid It All” and the choir sang a rendition of that beautiful hymn.

As a postscript: I sent a picture of the cross to my friend. I had not spoken with her for some time. In a text with the picture, I told her how much her father had meant to me and what a fine Christian example he always was to me. Unbeknownst to me, her husband had died during the week I had sent the text. She replied with heartfelt words of thanks for the memory of her father and replied that her husband had also been a fine Christian man. I was so glad I took the time to send her my thoughts about that cross.

Cindy Deere