The offense of the cross means to come to God just as you are, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.” Since the cross takes away all the glory from man and places it all on God, it becomes an offense to some folk.
Many years ago, a mother brought her little baby girl to an orphans’ home in the state of Texas and asked them to take care of the child. The mother’s face and hands bore horrible scars from a burn, and she urged the officials of the home not to tell the baby about her when she grew up. The mother assured them that she would not come to see the child. Then she told them the story of how she was burned.
Time elapsed and the mother-heart of this woman yearned to see the baby who was now a little girl of five or six. One day she could restrain herself no longer, and she applied at the orphans’ home for permission to see her little daughter. This was readily granted and an interview was arranged. The mother was seated in the living room, and the little girl was sent in to her. The little girl entered with fear and trembling, and the mother held out her hands to her — hands that were horribly scarred. The mother’s face, which was misshapen, was filled with longing to see her child. When the little girl got a glimpse of her mother, she screamed, turned, and ran out of the room. The mother broke down and sobbed.
Then the matron took the little girl into her room and told her the story — how that when she was a baby asleep in her crib, the house had caught on fire, and how her mother had rushed into her room that was in flames, wrapped her in a blanket so that she would not be burned, and in so doing had been horribly burned and had to spend long weeks and months in the hospital. When the little girl heard that her mother had been so terribly scarred for her sake, she went back into the living room where her mother was sobbing, pulled the misshapen hands down from her mother’s face, and covered them with kisses. She did the same with her mother’s face and thanked her from her little childish heart for what she had done for her.
My friend, the cross may be offensive to you, but He bore all of the offense for you and for me that we might stand before God blameless and without spot or blemish. Surely, we ought to be able to sing with thanksgiving:
In the cross of Christ I glory,
Tow’ring o’er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers ‘round its head sublime.
Dr. J. Vernon McGee
KNOWING GOD 