When I Look at the Cross

There are days when life feels quiet but heavy.
Not everything is wrong, but something feels unsettled deep within.
You wake up and go about your day,
But your heart carries a weight no one can see.
There is a sadness that does not shout.
It just sits silently in the corners of your soul,
As if waiting to be noticed.

And on days like that,
I find myself drawn to the image of the cross.
Not to a throne or a miracle,
But to a man who is suffering.
I look at Jesus.
He is not standing strong.
He is hanging.
Wounded, silent, and alone.

Yet, strangely, I feel seen.
Because He knows.
He knows what pain feels like.
He knows what it means to be abandoned,
To be rejected, misunderstood, and left in the dark.
He does not turn away from the suffering.
He embraces it.

And that changes everything for me.

The cross is not just an old story.
It is where the deepest love meets the deepest pain.
It is where Jesus says,
“I am with you.”
Not just when you are strong,
But especially when you are tired, broken, and unsure.

When my tears fall,
He does not ignore them.
He gathers them in His hands.
Hands that once held nails now hold my sorrow.
There is something sacred in that.
Something beautiful in knowing that my wounds are not forgotten.
They are understood.

When I feel like I have failed,
The cross reminds me that I am still loved.
When I feel like I am lost,
It tells me I have already been found.
When I feel like no one sees me,
Jesus whispers from the cross,
“I see you. I have always seen you.”

It is not a love that tries to fix everything at once.
It is a love that stays.
That waits patiently.
That suffers with me.
That never leaves.

And as I keep looking at Him,
I begin to breathe again.
Not because the pain is gone,
But because I am no longer carrying it alone.
He is with me in the silence,
In the emptiness,
In the questions I cannot answer.

The cross tells me that love does not always come with loud answers.
Sometimes it just comes with presence.
A presence that holds me together when I feel like falling apart.
A love that is not afraid of my tears.
A love that calls me by name.

So when the world feels too hard,
I look at the cross.
And slowly, gently,
My heart begins to heal.
Because in that sacred place,
I see not just pain,
But a promise.
A promise that I am never alone.
And never will be.