By Jean Driskell

Gary Garner, 45, professional woodworker and parishioner of Holy Family, has turned from designing homes and furniture to making crosses out of exotic woods in the basement of his Marietta home.

"For roughly 20 years I've done woodwork, basically meeting the desires and sometimes the needs of affluent and wealthy customers with my furniture and large homes," said Gary. Now he looks back upon that period of time as largely one in which he used the gifts the Lord gave him in pursuit of vain objectives. His work now, channeling those gifts in a new way, excites him.

"To be able to use these same talents and all this experience to build something that most anyone can afford and that conveys the message of the Lord, that's exciting and rewarding and fulfilling," he said.

The Victorious Cross

The first crosses that Gary has done have been basically in the form of what he calls the victorious cross -- "what I might classify as Jesus the Victor King," Gary said.

"I know this winter we will be adding other crosses more representative of the suffering servant," using the form of the crucified Christ, he said.

New Ministry

The crosses are really a new ministry for Gary and his wife, Nancy, who handles the business end and customer relations. The full-time occupation did not get started until after Easter of this year. But he had made a few crosses before then. He made the 10-foot cross that stands outside Holy Family parish about five years ago and he designed an interior cherry cross for Our Lady of LaSalette in Canton.

Also, a seven-foot teakwood cross that stands in his living room was made during Holy Week of this year, and was finished on Good Friday. This cross has openings in it to represent the Life and Resurrection of Christ. The Garners want to put it in their backyard prayer garden.

But making crosses is not just a new occupation for Gary and Nancy. These wooden crosses have become a visible expression of their faith in Jesus. Gary prays before any new design is made or wood used for he believes that he is guided by God to make these crosses in order to glorify God, he said.

"I don't think we, as Christians, can truly understand Christianity without embracing the cross and all that it means," Gary said. "As Christians I think we are called to make a statement of our faith in our homes that says who we really are and what we really believe."

To make that statement, Gary said that we feels that the crosses should be made with quality and with the look of fine furniture. So, he uses the most exotic woods from around the world, mainly because these are hard woods, they are beautiful and most people would not see these kinds of woods. He also uses these woods for inlays to represent different aspects of Christ and the cross.

Different Woods

Besides teakwood, which is a strong, weather-resistant wood, other exotic woods used are: Brazilian rosewood, used for one inlay represents the blood of Christ; ebony, which is very popular, represents the blackness of sin in the world; Padauk wood from Africa is very red; satinwood, from East India, is a "beautiful" blonde exotic wood and represents the light of Christ; and Cocobolo rosewood, a tropical American tree, is a reddish-brown, wild-grain wood and is used for the nail cross, depicting the suffering of Christ.

The wood Gary uses is found in lumberyards and at first glance, 'looks like firewood fodder," he said.

Make A Cross

To make a cross and to bring out the beauty of the wood, Gary takes the wood and if it has rough edges, he cuts a straight edge on a band saw. Then he goes to the jointer and runs the edges down "real slick and perfectly flat and straight," he said. All in-cuts and joints are cut on the radial arm saw. He uses the table saw to cut the inlay and the channels where the inlay will fit. The finished products are sprayed with lacquer and hand rubbed with pumice stone. This gives the crosses the same touch and feel as fine furniture.

The nail cross, which represents the suffering of Christ, is notched out in the back of the vertical beam and then Gary glues and screws in the horizontal beam.

This cross came into being when Gary saw a metal nail cross in St. Philip's Episcopal Cathedral in Atlanta and he said that he was strongly drawn to it when he visited the church at several different times. Since this was such a strong feeling, Gary said he decided that the Lord wanted him to make the nail cross, which he has done out of Cocobolo rosewood and ebony.

Gary plans to start making necklace crosses out of some olive wood from the Holy Land, which was given to him. He also wants to work with dogwood, but only from trees that have been cut down out of necessity at building sites since the dogwood is given special consideration in Georgia.

Other plans include making the Holy Spirit dove and other symbols indicative of Pentecost becoming involved in designing altars and making crosses for churches, either for the exterior or for an interior sanctuary or wall. Gary and Nancy also want to place the crosses he has already made in Christian bookstores and gift-shops. He would also like to make crosses for other denominations' churches since he sees the crosses "an a real ecumenism tool."

People do come to the Garner's home to see the crosses and occasionally Gary and Nancy go to people's homes to show the crosses. "We are available six days a week to show the crosses," Gary said.

Also, Gary and Nancy took some crosses of various sizes, including the seven-foot teakwood cross in their home, to the charismatic conference at Notre Dame University last Pentecost weekend, May 20 to 30. The conference attracted some 13,000 people so "we had a lot of exposure," Gary said. He said that, surprisingly, he sold more of the expensive crosses than the inexpensive crosses.

The crosses range in price from $39 for small wall crosses to about $75 to $100 for the larger wall crosses. The nail cross is around $75.

(The Garner's business known as Images of the Cross is located in their home 3227 Sewell Mill Road in Marietta, or call 770-971-4595.)