Spiritual Sunday: My Cross Wall, Part 2

Happy last summer Sunday,

I know summer isn’t officially over but as far as I am concerned, summer ends about the time school begins.  According to whomever decides such things, summer’s end comes on Wednesday, September 23 this year.  But at my house it ends tomorrow with the last day of August.

I just don’t think of September as a summer month!

Glad we hashed that out.

Today I want to share a little more about my cross wall.  I wrote my first post in this series about six weeks ago.  You can read it here.  Fully meant to write this second installment much sooner, in fact, I even started the post Several weeks ago.  Then lost it.  The post, that is.  So I am starting over again.

Today I am sharing a little bit about the crosses I pray at for my daughters and their families.

This is my Brennyn cross.

It is made of iridescent glass.  The colors are prettier in person than this picture illustrates.  As a little girl, Bren always liked pinks and purples, so at the time that I got this cross, it represented my first-born baby girl to me.  Now, I think Brennyn would say her favorite colors are shades of blue.  I loved the chameleon-quality of the glass for the way it appears one color, then another, the way I see Brennyn’s personality.  There is a fragility to the glass and a strength to the lead that holds it together.  My strong, vulnerable baby girl.  Valerie, my sister, gave me the guardian angel locket and a school friend made the other angel for me.  I like to think of those angels as representative of the babies Brennyn cares for in her career as a neo-natal nurse.

I pray at this cross for my first baby girl, Brennyn Alexis.

This is my Cady cross.

I bought this cross shortly before my granddaughter Cady was born.  I love the verse inscribed on it and the colors on the cross matched the colors in Cady’s bedroom perfectly.

I had planned to put the cross in Cady’s room but Brennyn asked me to hang it on my cross wall at home.  So I did.  I pray for so many things for my first born grandbaby, most especially her health and her happiness.

I pray at this cross for my sweet granddaughter, Cadence Ellie.

Cady’s cross hangs to the side of the crosses I have for her mommy and daddy.  Brennyn’s cross is above and Corey’s cross is below and Cady’s is in the middle and to the side.

This is Corey’s cross.

I don’t know why this cross spoke to me as Corey’s cross.  I think it has something to do with its weathered look.  Corey works as a meteorologist for the National Weather Service and this cross looks weathered and rugged.  I have always thought of Corey as being a good supporter and providing a strong foundation for his family to grow on.  I like the strength of this cross.

This is the cross I pray at for my son-in-law, Corey Nicholas Joseph.

My own cross or the cross I use to represent myself is in between my daughters’ crosses but I will save it to talk about on another day.  So Brennyn is to the left of my cross and Lauren’s cross is to the right.

This is Lauren’s cross.

Lauren was actually with me when I bought this cross and for a change, I even remember where I bought it.  We had gone to Corpus Christi for a quick 24 hour trip, just Buff and Mom on our way home from somewhere.  I am thinking maybe on our way home from a trip to Memphis to see my parents.  When we left Corpus, we drove up through San Antonio and stopped at El Mercado Mexican Market.  I had been at the market earlier in the spring and had fallen in love with these pop bottle crosses.  I would have bought one then but I am pretty sure I didn’t have any extra money so when Lauren and I passed through San Antonio in the summer, we had to stop.

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The peachy color of this cross convinced me that this was the cross for Lauren.  Peach has always been her favorite color.  I loved the bottle caps representing saints in the Catholic faith.  Lauren has always been my little barrio baby.  She attended Silva health sciences magnet high school on the grounds of the same high school, Jefferson,  where I first starting working as a librarian.  The schools are in one of the poorest areas in the country, very near the Segundo Barrio of El Paso.

This is the cross I pray at for my second-born, baby girl, Lauren Allegra.

The cross below Lauren’s is for her husband Francisco.

This is my cross for Francisco.

The reason this cross spoke to me for Francisco is less abstract.  He was in medical school when I selected this cross for Lauren’s then-boyfriend, now husband.  The heart in the middle symbolizes the human body and health, and the barbed wire encircling the heart represent the hard road that comes with becoming a doctor.  Francisco has made it, though.  In June 2016, he will finish his residency.  The flame above the heart represents Francisco’s work toward saving lives.

This is the cross I pray at for my son-in-law, Francisco Isidro. 

Now that Lauren and Francisco are expecting their first baby, I will be on the lookout for a cross for my second grandchild.  Coincidentally, although there really are no coincidences in life, there is a blank spot out beside and between their crosses for that baby’s cross.

And I just received the most beautiful cross from my BFF Sharon.

It is going to be my Sharon cross.  A special cross for Sharon, her husband Mike, their children and grandchildren.

I will share it in a coming post very soon.

It occurs to me as I type this that I have been neglectful of praying at my cross wall in the past few weeks.  I have been doing my devotional outside on my back patio so my kitties can romp in the yard while I have my spiritual time but I have neglected spending time at my cross wall.  This coming week I will try to remember to be more faithful.

Shortly after I wrote the first post about my cross wall, my buddy Martha shared a picture of her cross wall with me.  I posted it to my blog Facebook page but want to share it again here.

Her crosses are so unique, too.

Do you have a cross wall or a special place in your home dedicated to your faith?

Please share it with me!  I would love to see.

Thank you for sharing a bit of your day here.

Hugs and kisses,