I find it fascinating how our style selections are connected to our worldviews. With this in mind, let’s talk about selecting the right cross for any occasion.
Background
Crosses are popular in jewelry. They look good as necklaces. Some crosses show Jesus on them. They are obviously more difficult to draw and then turn into jewelry. Others are simple shapes and certain Christian denominations prefer these. Others are opposed to any of any kind.
I’m not sure that preferences in cross designs are that doctrinally motivated. There doesn’t seem to be a right or wrong here. Instead it’s more a matter of personal taste.
It isn’t even necessary to have a physical cross. Making the sign of the cross is a significant ritual to many and can be performed as a statement of faith or benediction depending on the circumstances.
Of course the cross is the primary symbol of Jesus the Christ or Anointed One and those called by his name, Christians. However, this doesn’t keep anyone else from wearing, buying, giving, and receiving crosses for their own personal reasons. I’m fairly certain some wear crosses as jewelry to subtly distance themselves from serious conversations on the matter. And also, perhaps, wearing a cross is an attempt at winning favor with the Cosmos. We don’t want to accidentally offend a deity and wind up pushing a bolder up some mountain for the rest of eternity.
For the first three hundred and fifty years or so after Jesus was nailed to a cross it was not connected as a symbol to Christianity. This changed when the Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity the state religion. This was also, as I have been told, when it stopped being used as a means of execution. People to this day don’t normally wear guillotines or electric chairs as jewelry and if they do it is for shock value. The meaning of the cross over time has taken on one of the most radical transformations of any symbol I can think of. It moved from a symbol of death to life.
What does this reflection about crosses have to do with faith in God?
Crosses and other symbols found in art don’t bring or imply meaning as much as they evoke it. They remind us of things from our past experiences. These might be good memories or bad ones or a mix.
Art, I suppose could be usurped to create idols in the same way science can, but this again has more to do with our human nature than our selection of what we decide to create. We humans supply meaning and assign value.
I Think It Boils Down to This
Seeking to find God or other higher invisible powers in art or jewelry is simply one of countless ways we attempt to earn favor. We are working toward our own salvation. That, or we are consciously rejecting a path we have been offered because we don’t want to change and we don’t want to give up our illusion of control (eventually, however, in all cases it is revealed for what it is).
The crosses people wear have a deep and profound story which, sadly for many, is not understood by the purchaser or wearer. It isn’t obvious and requires some explanation. Once understood, however, it has the potential of changing lives. And once a life has changed, as part of the celebration, many will go shopping for a meaningful cross.
I hope you find the one most important and impactful to you.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
I suspect there are many who wear crosses, yet have never considered these words spoken by Jesus. As you mentioned, to them it is simply jewelry; when, in reality, it is so much more.
“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Matthew 16:24-25