I'm Looking at an antique embroidery that belonged to my grandmother. It's framed in a typical polished mahogany frame with a gold-leaf liner. In the middle is a cross with a beautiful crown hovering over it, a few graceful garlands of flowers, and the words embroidered in gold thread, "No Cross—No Crown."
Many today might consider its message old-fashioned. But Jesus' words, "He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me is not worthy of me," Matt. 10:38 are ageless in their import. The idea that Christians must expect to suffer through life in order to learn needed lessons, and that we must bear with resignation hardships meted out to us by God before we can reach heaven, is not consistent with the Bible's assurances that God is Love. Christian Science teaches us that suffering and tragedy are never God's will, nor is submitting to them the way to gain our salvation and crown. But the willingness to take up whatever seems to be a cross, in trust and humility, will enable us to demonstrate our way out of materiality and suffering and to win the crown of healing and rejoicing.
There can be no loss
of good, because divine
Love is ever present
and all-powerful.
