My five year-old son is learning to read and write and loves practicing writing his letters. However, he really loves the letter X, saying says “Criss cross, applesauce!” when he writes an X. It is his favorite letter. I was washing dishes last night and had an extremely profound revelation. Washing dishes can be very boring meditative work. Yes, the answer to why Eric loves that letter X so dearly became so suddenly and plainly obvious that I was almost embarrassed for not knowing all along! Naturally, X is the best letter of the alphabet. We put X’s on our calendar whenever we have to count down the days until Daddy comes home from his Army work! X always brings us one day closer to having Daddy. Therefore, X is now our favorite letter.

Immediately after that great thought, another beautiful idea came to me. X really is the greatest letter on earth! The Greek letter X (chi) is the first letter of Χριστός (Christ). It is written “Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) Now we know that Jesus, who is the Christ (or Χριστός), was born and lived and died for our sins. He rose from the dead so that we may have everlasting life. This is not just living forever, but living for eternity in the presence of God the father. So X really does bring us closer to being with our Father, and what is there not to love about that?

May your calendars be filled with happy X’s and even happier reunions, and may your homes be filled with the love and peace of Christ.