Santa Cruz Sunday #4

I remember many years ago when you and Anna were little that I went through the training to be a teacher for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd classes at Christ Church downtown in Nashville. This was for the Sunday school classes at St. B's, and it was quite a bit of training (90 hours required!).  I don't think it was your favorite thing to go to while I was in the training, but there was always a great lunch served after and then we would go to the Frist Art Museum across the street to do art for a fun little outing. 

in the parking lot at Christ Church in Nashville 

at the Frist Art Museum afterwards 

At one of the classes, they were teaching about the sign of the cross. The way they would teach us is that the facilitator would lead the lesson, and all the adults would circle up on the floor as if we were children in the class to listen and learn. When they told us about the subject, I did not think there would be much to share as it seemed quite straightforward. 

When I typed in "sign of the cross," this is the first image that pops up from my google search

But I was wrong-- though it was quite simple, it was also profound.  The teacher began by asking us what we did when we finished a piece of artwork to which someone responded that we write our name on it. Down the road when I was teaching it, I asked the same question, and Lydia West (who now goes to Pitzer and has connected with Anna at Scripps over the last few years) said, "You write your name on it because it belongs to you." 

This kind of teaching was so beautiful in that it allowed the children to have those light bulb moments that helped them really think about things more deeply, and there were not just fill-in-the-blank answers that went in one each and out the other. 

I was struck by this in thinking about how we put the sign of the cross on ourselves as a reminder that we are signed by the Creator who made us and who loves us. We are God's workmanship and God's masterpiece. We belong to God. 

I remember seeing you do the sign of the cross before you jumped off the bridge with Caz this summer in Missoula, and it was offered up with a quick prayer as you were about to do something that required a bit of courage. 

My prayer is that you will use this sign of the cross often to remind you of these beautiful truths--- that you indeed belong to God, that you are loved, that God delights in the work He has made in you and in the work He continues to do in you as you grow and learn.