The Cross [Necklace] Chronicles

📷Johanna Heidorn

I feel like I've been missing a limb since Halloween. 

I was holding then 7 1/2 month old Angela when she started tugging on my cross necklace. I figured she couldn't do any harm - and even said so aloud - so I let her be, only to watch the pendant fall into my lap seconds later. To be fair, the tiny metal loop from which the pendant dangled had worn down to the point that there was a minuscule gap in it; her chubby fingers were simply the straw that broke the camel's back. 

It's not just any cross necklace. I've been wearing it, with few exceptions, for the past 14 years! That's almost half my life. Every attendee at the 2004 LCMS National Youth Gathering in Orlando got one. I remember putting mine on in my hotel room, with the chain doubled up, and it just feeling right. It's become my trademark. Video chatting with friends last night I was abruptly asked "What necklace are you wearing?" (For the past six weeks I've been alternating between two substitutes that, while I treasure both, just aren't the same.)

A fellow missionary suggested that I ask Luis, a member of the church I go to here and a metalworker by trade, if he could do anything to fix mine. I eagerly did just that, and got it back today! I wish I could report that it was as good as new. Au contraire. Because of the unidentified metal it's made of, he could only put a Band-Aid on it and caution me to be careful. 

What to do??? I'm thinking I wear it boldly knowing that if it breaks, it breaks, and in the meantime, start looking for a suitable replacement and mentally preparing myself to turn over a new leaf??? You have no idea how much I've missed its familiar weight between my finger pads when I absentmindedly fiddle with it (all the time), and it's not going to do me or anyone any good anyplace other than around my neck. 

(You can read more about the saga of my necklace and its significance in my life as a Baptized child of God and now as a missionary in the January print edition of Lutheran Witness.)

Until next time, blessings!

P.S. If there are any other 2004 Gathering attendees out there whose cross necklaces are collecting dust, let's talk.