Crossed Fingers

“There is an appointed time for everything...” Ecclesiastes 3:1

Today, saying, “Keep your fingers crossed!” may mean, “Wish me luck!”, or one does it behind one’s back to invalidate a promise. But the original meaning behind the gesture dates back to early Christianity when two people would cross their index fingers to form a cross. In the early centuries of the Catholic Church, a person would also cross their fingers to invoke the power of the cross to ask for protection from evil. It even became a custom for Christians to cross their fingers as a secret sign of the cross just as the sign of the fish was also used. 

In Ecclesiastes 3:1 we read that, “There is an appointed time for everything”. Then in Chapter 1, there is a verse which says there’s really nothing new under the sun. History merely repeats itself. (1:9) The writer of Ecclesiastes had a sad verdict about life. His conclusion is it is meaningless and a dead end which he repeats about 35 times. 

We have a choice. We may think life is pointless, and use the crossed fingers sign as a way to bring luck into our corner. OR we can be like the early Christians who knew the power of the Cross and the name of Jesus. Their life was not meaningless and they were willing to die for what they believed in. We can believe that there is an appointed time, a blessed time for everything in our lives, and that even when hard times come, God is there, on top of it all, in full control. 

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecc. 3:11)