Centuries ago on the South Coast of China, high up on a hill overlooking the harbor of Macao, Portuguese settlers built an enormous cathedral. It was their belief that the cathedral would weather time. Then, they placed upon the front wall of this cathedral a massive bronze cross that stood high in the sky. Several years later, a typhoon came and God’s finger work swept away man’s handiwork. The cathedral was pushed into the ocean and down the hill as debris. Ironically, the front wall of the cathedral and the bronze cross, stood high.

Centuries later, there was a shipwreck out a little beyond that harbor. Many on the ship survived, but a few escaped with their lives. One of the men, John Bowring, hung onto some wreckage from the ship, moving up and down in the crest of the ocean, as the swells were moving. He was disoriented, frightened, and had no idea where land might be. Eventually, he spotted the cross on top of the front wall of the cathedral off in a distance. When he made it to land and lived to tell the story, he wrote,

In the cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o’er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.

Then he wrote the last stanza.
When the woes of life o’er take me,
Hopes deceive, and fears annoy,
Never shall the cross forsake me;
Lo! It glows with peace and joy.

When life comes into us like a swell we have a cross that serves as our altar. We just need to go back to the cross, remember the empty tomb, and recall to mind that Jesus is neither on the cross nor in the tomb. Not only does He live in us, but also He stands ready and able to help us through the storms of life. When life comes at you in a minor key, come by grace to the Cross and say, “Jesus, You are my sufficiency. And, I put all my hope in you.”