Do you know someone who is not carrying a cross? We all are. What makes our crosses different is their weight. But our crosses are metaphorical, referring to the sufferings we have to endure. Can you believe that there is a man who literally carries a cross—an actual cross? He walks around, meets people, prays for them, and even travels abroad carrying a twelve-foot, wooden cross that weighs forty-one kilograms!
One night in 1982, Keith Wheeler was on a beach in Florida, watching the ocean and thinking about life. It is at that moment, he says, he understood the value of the death of Jesus on a cross. Three years later, in 1985, while he was praying at night, he felt that God spoke to him: “I want you to make a cross and begin carrying it through the streets of Tulsa on Good Friday.” He obeyed, made a cross and on Good Friday carried it along the streets of Tulsa, a town in Oklahoma, U.S.A. He believed that God wanted him to be a pilgrim of peace who carries the cross, the symbol of reconciliation, to every nation.
Now Keith Wheeler has walked with that 12-foot, wooden cross over 24,000 miles, through more than 175 countries on all seven continents! Keith has carried the cross through places such as Tibet, Iran, Iraq, China and even, Antarctica. He has carried the cross through many nations at war such as Libya, Bosnia, Rwanda, the Chechen region and Palestine. And yes, he has come to India, carrying his cross. This is what he has to say about his visit to our country: “We began carrying the cross in Kanyakumari (formerly known as Cape Comorin). It is the southernmost tip of India where the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea come together. From there, we walked north up into the state of Kerala. So many people wanted prayer … people would just stand there staring at the cross and then burst into tears, as we would share with them about God’s love and how He wants to forgive us and have a relationship with us and give us eternal life. It was awesome! People were constantly offering me food and drink. They kept hanging garlands of cloth and of flowers around my neck. Oh, the love of the precious Indian people! These weren’t just Christians, there were also Hindus and Muslims!”
Well, can you travel to 176 countries carrying a 12-foot wooden cross without facing any problems? Keith has been arrested about forty times. Once he says he was beaten and left for dead. People who did not like what he was doing have tried to run him over. One of his legs has been broken in twenty-one places! The weight of the cross has caused welts to develop on his collar bone.
Keith Wheeler, 57, an American and ecumenical Christian, is happily married. Nicole, his wife, often accompanies him on his cross-carrying trips. They have five children. You may wonder if he has other ‘crosses’—apart from the wooden cross he carries around. His twenty-four-year old daughter, Hannah, is on dialysis, and she “has to stick a needle in her body twice a day, five days a week,” he says. His son is autistic. “I believe that God’s heart breaks for the lost and hurting of this world. I know that one day He’ll wipe away every tear from our eyes.”
Keith says, “I’m not an evangelist or missionary; I’m simply a pilgrim. I am a pilgrim follower of Jesus. I go with Jesus, the cross, and the simple message of God’s love for all people…”
Let Keith Wheeler keep reminding us of the Love that died on the cross for our sake and on the third day rose victoriously to be with us till the end of time.
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