I fell in love with this cross in the Christian bookshop in Bromyard, with mixed emotions.
I love the colour & skill involved in making it, and it will hang above my desk, as a reminder of God's love for me.
I love the fact it is made for Traidcraft by neglected families in Vietnam, enabling them to have an income.
I love the fact that each and everyone is unique, and made by hand.
I love the fact it is made from recycled magazines using skills that would otherwise go to waste.
I love the fact that I can walk into this bookshop, pick up books and gifts, see what I am getting, purchase and take it hone with me. (Sadly they told me the Christian bookshop in Hereford is closing :( )
BUT
It is beautiful.
Should a cross be beautiful?
Is this changing the cross to something it never was meant to be?
Sanitising it?
It reminded me of words from a song by Matt Redman
'I've given like a beggar but lived like the rich
And crafted myself a more comfortable cross,
Yet what I am called to is deeper than this,
It's time You had my whole life;
You can have it all'
