~A CUSTOM-MADE CROSS

The everlasting God has in His wisdom foreseen from eternity the cross that He now presents to you as a gift from His inmost Heart.  This cross He now sends to you He has considered with His all-knowing eyes, understood with His Divine mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed with loving arms and weighed with His own hands to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you.  He has blessed it with His holy Name, anointed it with His grace, perfumed it with His consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage, and then sent it to you from heaven, a special greeting from God to you, and alms of the allmerciful love of God.

~Saint Francis de Sales~  

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Jesus had faced the forces of hell and fought them to a standstill.  It was not just the outcome of one day's incredible work, but the culmination of thirty-three years of life on earth; thirty as carpenter and three of public teaching, healing, and continual confrontations with the religious leaders of His day.  And the cross lay just ahead. 

Someone pointed out that Jesus did not feed all the hungry, heal all the sick, cure all the cripples, or raise all the dead.  Yet when He came to the end of His life's work just before His crucifixion, He said, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do" (John 17:4).

How often in my life I have said, "It's enough!"
(1 Kings 19:4)

But we each have our "Plimsoll mark" (that line around ocean tankers to indicate when the load has reached its maximum capacity).  He who made us knows just how much we can take.  He never overloads us.  But "neither has He promised strength for uncommanded tasks."

I want Him to so order my life that when the end comes I can say, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do."

I do not want to feel compelled to say, "It is enough" before I can honestly say, with His help, "It is finished."

~Ruth Bell Graham~

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