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經文：「耶穌背著自己的十字架出來。」（約19:17） 有一首詩名叫「換來的十字架」。裡面講到一個疲乏的姊妹，以為她的十字架一定比別人的更重，所以非常希望和別人的交換。某天她做了一個夢，夢中她到了一個地方，在那裡擺著許多形狀與大小各不相同的十字架。有一個小十字架形狀最美麗，上面鑲著寶石和黃金。這個姊妹一看見就說：「啊，這一個背起來一定很舒適。」，於是就想要抬起來，不料她虛弱的身體，竟在這個十字架下顫抖。寶石和黃金雖然美麗，可是太重，她背不動。 後來，她又看見一個可愛的十字架；在雕刻的木架上，盤繞美麗的鮮花。她想：這個應該容易背了。她就將它擧起來，不料鮮花下面有許多尖刺，刺痛了她的皮肉。她就這麼一步一步地走，一個一個地試，然後發現每一個十字架，都不容易背。直到最後她看見一個樸素的十字架，上面沒有寶石，也沒有雕刻，只寫著幾句親愛的話。她舉起這個十字架，覺得是所有中最容易背的一個。她在陽光下仔細一看，認出這是原本的舊十字架。原來，原本的十字架就是最輕，最適合自己的十字架！ 親愛的讀者，神知道我們需要背的是那一個十字架。我們常常羨慕有錢人用黃金打造又鑲嵌著寶石的十字架，卻不知道這個十字架多麼沉重。還有一些人的生活似乎很可愛，他們背著那盤繞鮮花的十字架，卻不知鮮花下面有許多尖銳的刺。所以，如果能去試試那些本以為比自己的更輕的十字架，我們就會發現，它們沒有一個能像我們原有的十字架那麼適合自己。--譯自信徒生活一瞥 Glimpses through Life’s Windows 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "And he went out carrying his own cross" (John 19:17). There is a poem called "The Changed Cross." It represents a weary one who thought that her cross was surely heavier than those of others whom she saw about her, and she wished that she might choose an other instead of her own. She slept, and in her dream she was led to a place where many crosses lay, crosses of different shapes and sizes. There was a little one most beauteous to behold, set in jewels and gold. "Ah, this I can wear with comfort," she said. So she took it up, but her weak form shook beneath it. The jewels and the gold were beautiful, but they were far too heavy for her. Next she saw a lovely cross with fair flowers entwined around its sculptured form. Surely that was the one for her. She lifted it, but beneath the flowers were piercing thorns which tore her flesh. At last, as she went on, she came to a plain cross, without jewels, without carvings, with only a few words of love inscribed upon it. This she took up and it proved the best of all, the easiest to be borne. And as she looked upon it, bathed in the radiance that fell from Heaven, she recognized her own old cross. She had found it again, and it was the best of all and lightest for her. God knows best what cross we need to bear. We do not know how heavy other people's crosses are. We envy someone who is rich; his is a golden cross set with jewels, but we do not know how heavy it is. Here is another whose life seems very lovely. She bears a cross twined with flowers. If we could try all the other crosses that we think lighter than our own, we would at last find that not one of them suited us so well as our own.--Glimpses through Life's Windows ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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