Ugly Or Beautiful?

When I made this cross out of clay you could bake in the oven I didn’t think much about it at the time. I have created crosses that looked better than this plane black cracked cross. I am not even sure why I chose the black clay that day.

 Yet the other day when I picked up this cross and looked at it and thought you are kind of ugly. then I heard God speak quietly to me. The cross was never beautiful, the beauty came from the One who hung on it.
Many of us have crosses that decorate our homes. I have a beautiful one with wings that was given to me as a gift that hangs in my living room. I have made them myself as gifts for friends, and even made one as an emergency repair for a plaque on which the original cross was accidentally broken. These crosses are works of art and are beautiful.                       Let us not let the beauty of these crosses make us forget the ugliness of sin and what sin costs. Then remember the One who paid the price. Who let Himself be nailed to a cross. Who bled on that cross and finally died on that cross for you and for me.

That is love and that to me is beautiful.

Art and poetry by Julie Sheppard

Question;

Is this cross ugly or beautiful to you?

Would love to hear your thoughts.