Moments to Remember

When new members join Zoar they are presented with a bamboo cross.  These crosses are very similar in looks to the three cedar crosses in our cemetery.  The bamboo crosses are also available anytime, to member or guests that request them.

There is great significance in bamboo.  To many people, bamboo is more than a plant.  It represents a way of being.

Its straight - tall stalks, mirror upright moral character, while its rooting deep into the earth suggests firmness and resolve.

The hollow stalks signifies humility and modesty.  True virtue is not loud or showy.

Bamboo’s most celebrated characteristic is its ability to bend without breaking.  Typhoons may flatten other trees, but bamboo springs back upright.  This quality captures the spirit of adaptability—meeting challenges head-on, yet remaining unbroken.  It’s a way of facing adversity with grace, strong yet yielding, just as a wise person does.

Bamboo’s polished, clean appearance and hollow core have come to represent chastity, modesty, and openness.  It is seen as honest—simple on the outside, profound within.

Bamboo symbolizes strength, resilience, humility, and moral integrity and a harmonious relationship with nature.

A proper cross has certain dimensions.  The vertical part of the cross is always 3 units in length, while the horizontal part is 2 units in length.  The two pieces are joined so that above, left and right side of the union point, the length is one unit long, while on the bottom it is 2 units long.

When you cut a stalk of bamboo at ground level, God has blessed you.  Measure the length from the bottom to the third knuckle and cut it.  Then measure the next section above what you just cut.  The lower section will measure 3 units long while the piece right above it will generally measure 2 units long.   This occurs 65% of the time.