God’s Tattoo
JULY 26, 2022
Every few years, I get the notion to get a tattoo – then don’t.
It’s not the fear of thousands of needle jabs planting indelible pigment into my skin that gives me pause; I’m tough (as far as you know, anyway).
No, the reason I back off from getting inked is that sometimes I look at the clothes hanging in my closet and think “Why did I buy that?”
A Cuban-style guayabera shirt? Exactly what was the age when I could pull that off?
A tattoo can easily become a lame t-shirt that you can never take off (just ask my buddy Dave about the Mickey Mouse tat on his calf).
I’m afraid of committing to something essentially forever, then changing my mind.
Thankfully, that’s not true of our Heavenly Father.
When it comes to His children, He is all-in to an absolute and irrevocable degree.
How much is that? Enough that He got a tattoo of you. Seriously…
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…”
- Isaiah 49:15-16a
Engraved on the palms of His hands. Okay, maybe that’s not literally a tattoo, but it’s mighty close.
Some days – a LOT of days, I feel about as wanted and prized as my buddy’s now-blotchy Mickey Mouse tattoo (which I know I said wasn’t that bad, Dave, but it is – it’s awful).
But the Good News is it’s not about me. It’s about Him.
God purchased me with Jesus’ blood and He has not – and will not – experience buyer’s remorse (Numbers 23:19).
He will not forget about me.
That means I’m free to stop trying to earn that feeling – being wanted, prized, loved – and just start enjoying what I already have.
Just… Enjoy God.
Hey, that would look great as a tattoo.