Actor Chris Pratt continues to unashamedly share his Christianity, recently telling TV host Stephen Colbert he erected a cross on a hilltop to honor Jesus Christ and publicly proclaim his faith.
During a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the "Gaurdians of the Galaxy" actor was asked about a series of Instagram pictures he posted this Spring.
As earlier reported, on Easter weekend, Pratt posted several pictures showing him and two friends erecting a giant cross somewhere in the desert: With captions, "Pick the spot," "Haul it," "Dig the hole" and "Cement it in," his posts basically read as a how to guide for transforming your backyard into a place of worship.
Pratt told Colbert that on the Saturday before Easter, he went to visit a few friends who own a ranch in Texas. They told him that they were planning on building a giant cross somewhere on the property, and Pratt instantly volunteered to lend a hand.
"They had this big cross," he recalled. "It was on a Saturday, the day before Easter, and they said, 'You know, we got this big cross. We gotta bring it up this great big hill at some point.' I said, 'Let's do it right now ... I want to do it. And, it's Saturday before Easter, if you think about it, that's what Jesus was doing 2000-something years before on a Saturday before Easter, was carrying a cross up a hill!' ... It took us like two days. The thing was super heavy, and it was like just so rewarding and awesome."
The "Parks and Recreation" actor frequently discusses his faith and has in the past shared how God guided his family as his now 3-year-old son, Jack, was was born prematurely and weighed just 3 lbs, spending a month in intensive care.
"We were scared for a long time. We prayed a lot," Pratt told People Magazine back in 2012. "It restored my faith in God, not that it needed to be restored, but it really redefined it. The baby was so beautiful to us, and I look back at the photos of him and it must have been jarring for other people to come in and see him, but to us he was so beautiful and perfect."
Pratt and his wife, actress Anna Faris, were told that their son would live - but would likely be disabled for the rest of his life. However, God had other plans, and little Jack was fully healed in the NICU and is completely healthy today.
In the past, Pratt has revealed that he became a Christian at the age of 19. In 2014, he told Esquire magazine that on a night that he had intended to party with friends, he encountered a man in a bar who said he was directed by God to intervene.
"He was like, 'I stopped because Jesus told me to stop and talk to you,'" Pratt told Esquire. "'He said to tell you you're destined for great things.' My friends came out, and I was like, 'Hey, I'm gonna go with this guy.' I gave my soul to Jesus within, like, two days. I was stuffing envelopes for his organization, Jews for Jesus. I'm not even sure, at that age - I was 19 years old - I knew what Jewish was."
One month later, Pratt was discovered by a film director while he was waiting tables at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant, and he traveled to California to star in the 2000 horror comedy "Cursed Part III."
The actor has also shared how his faith translates into his relationship with his wife, who he married in 2009.
"A lot of times, people focus so much on their kids, and then when their kids leave the nest, they look at their spouse or partner like they're a stranger," he said. "It's just as important, if not more important, to focus on your relationship with your partner because your children are going to leave one day. You have to maintain a relationship that's going to outlast your child's needs for you."
