「耶穌自己背著十字架出來。」－約翰福音19:17
在一個夜裡，她夢見自己到了一個裡頭堆滿大小不同形狀十字架的房間。
她立刻注意到一個鑲著黃金寶石、美麗精巧的十字架，於是她說：「啊，這個背起來一定舒服。」當她把可愛的十架放在肩頭時，她的身體竟然虛弱的左搖右晃。黃金寶石固然引人入勝，其重量卻超乎想像。
接著她又挑上了一個雕飾精緻，其上纏滿鮮花的十架。她想這個該屬於她了，於是舉起了十架；不料，美麗的花朵下竟暗藏了尖利的刺，劃破了她的肌膚。
最後，她只好撿起一個樸實無華的十字架，一個既無寶石修飾，又缺美工雕製，上頭只刻著幾句經文的十架。
她背了起來，發現是個最輕省十字架；於是，她扛著走到陽光底下，此時卻赫然發現，這竟是原屬於自己的那個古舊十字架。
唯有神，才知道我們所需背負的十架。因為，我們不知道別人的十字架有多麼沈重。
我們羨慕有錢的人，羨慕他們鑲上寶石的黃金十架；然而，我們卻不知道他們的十架一個比一個沈重難擔。也許我們羨慕別人美好的生活，和他們鮮花纏繞的十架。
然而，若我們有機會去試試各種不同的十字架，就會發現還是自己的背起來最適切自在。
－信徒生活的一瞥
"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
