In the eighth century Theodore, the Studite wrote:

How right Paul is to exclaim: “Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

Throughout history the most wonderful events have been only the symbols and foreshadowing of this cross.  Did not God decree that Noah should escape from drowning in the flood with his sons and their wives and every kind of animal in a tiny wooden boat?

Was not Moses staff a symbol of the cross?  It changed water into blood; now it devoured the false snakes of the magicians; now by the power of its touch it divided the sea; now it made the waves of the sea flow back together, drowning the enemy and saving God’s children.

On a single day, Aaron’s rod blossomed and showed him to be the true priest.

Abraham foreshadowed the cross, when he bound his son Isaac and placed him on a pile of wood.  By the cross death was killed and Adam restored to life.  In the cross every apostle has glorified; by it every martyr has been crowned and every saint made holy.  We have put on the cross of Christ, and laid aside the old.  Through the cross we have joined Christ’s flock, and are granted a place in the sheepfold of heaven.