With the summer weather, more skin is exposed here in California and the tattoos are coming out.
Some of them are beautiful, many are intricate and astonishing. I often stop and try to figure out what they are and why folks chose that particular item.
Sometimes it’s obvious.
Sometimes I shake my head.
But body art always reminds me of a desperately ill young woman who loved her God and the tattoo she got to make sure that love could be proclaimed.
Our pastor’s 27-year-old niece, Heather Beyer, died of breast cancer several years ago. She used the last two years as she fought for her life to share the good news that she had a future in heaven.
As time went by, however, she became concerned she would not be able to praise her Lord so effectively if she couldn’t speak. She wanted to be able to lift up her hands and continue to voice her love for God.
So, she had her praises tattooed to her wrist.
Heather’s thought was, if all else failed, when she lifted up her hands “hallelujah” still would be announced.
I’m blessed and amazed at such strength.
Which reminds me of another tattoo, inked onto the forearm of a writer I know. Kay Strom has a heart for third-world women and one day while interviewing some Copts in Egypt, she noticed they had a cross tattooed to their forearms. Why?
“We feel certain that severe persecution is coming to Egypt, and we are not sure we will be able to stand up to it. We have chosen to have ourselves indelibly marked as followers of Christ so that we can never renounce Him, not even in our weakest moments,” one woman explained.
Kay was struck by their courage and came home resolved to do the same. Her husband, Dan Kline, was a little nervous about the idea, but agreed to drive her to the tattoo parlor when the day came. At the last minute, he got one, too–though not on his forearm like Kay.
But you can see the crosses on their arms. They are not particularly large, “I can cover it with a bandage when I visit Muslim countries,” Kay explained.
But it’s there and she knows it.
And it makes me, in only this one instance, itch to consider the same mark.
The Bible reminds us that we, ourselves, are a tattoo in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 when the apostle Paul remarks:
“You, yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
I need to remember that. I may not have the courage of Heather or Kay or Dan, but the grace of God flows through me to the world–a tattoo of God’s love and mercy to all I meet.
Jesus’ grace tattoos our souls with forgiveness Click to Tweet
During Lent and Easter Season I was wearing one of those little cotton wrist bracelets made for children that said, “Jesus Loves Me.” I think that would make a nice tatoo.
My line of work in a former life prohibited tattoos – any identifying and memorable mark could get one killed, quite unpleasantly.
That aversion to any permanent mark has remained, so I probably would not put anything on my forearm.
But in later years scars accumulated, and I guess those will have to suffice. It’s not the years, but the mileage…which I hope will be pleasing to God.
Michelle, that’s a real testimony to their courage.
And hey, Dan and Kay are writer friends of mine, too. Good folks. How’s that for another connection?
Awesome blog, Michelle. My kids and I are in the upper end of risk for cellulitis and have been told we cannot get tattoos. But, much to my hubby’s shock, if I could, I’d get the Coptic Cross. And I choked up at the “hallelujah” on Heather’s arm.