The Cross above my bed.......

I am packing up my belongings today. Why, you may ask? Well I am moving tomorrow. The time has come to move into the seminary to begin the year’s formation.

So I am going through my stuff: going through my clothes, my desk, my  pictures, my safe, my books: and the first thing I did was take my icons off the wall. The religious articles on my wall are rather large and the wise thing to do is pack them first. So I looked at them and saw the nice crucifix which I have over my bed. I only put it up within the last year or so. Now to make a really long story short, I only began to take my faith seriously about two or three years ago, but I never had a crucifix in my room. Not until I came across a really beautiful and simple one in a small nice shop in Madrid last summer. I got home and put it right over my bed so I could look up every night and see my only hope at salvation hanging from the redeeming cross.

I think that is sort of symbolic of my life. The cross was the last thing I put up in my room. Though it wasn’t in my room first, the cross had become the most important thing in my life. Actually it was always the most important thing, but I failed to realize that. I failed to put the Lord at the helm of my life, as I failed to display the depiction of his sacrifice in my room. I have tended to neglect the most important things, but now I have my priorities in order. I neglected God, and I am sorry for that. Now that I know what I know, I never want to feel as if I am putting anything before God.

So back to the story… I was looking at my icons and my cross, and I decided, “the cross is going to stay up, yes it will be easier to pack my cross now, but I am leaving it up.” My faith may not always have been first in my life but it certainly is now. I just don’t like the way my room would look without the cross in it. How did I ever live without the crucifix above my bed? It may have been the last thing in my room, and symbolically in my life, but it is absolutely going to be the last thing to leave that room, and it is never leaving my life.

Put God first. Whether it be spiritually or physically, it is vital to put God first. I place the image of His redeeming sacrifice at the high point of my room, but what I am saying with that act is the important thing. I do and always will place Christ as the most important part of my life, of who I am.