She sat across from me in a waiting room and I could not but stare at her tattoo. She appeared to be about 55. She was probably younger but her tattoo hinted at a hard life which puts years on people. I see teenage girls smoking and I think the anti-wrinkle cream people must be thrilled when they see a teenage girl smoking. She will probably be a life-long customer. The waiting room lady’s tattoo was boldly displayed on her sternum. It was a purple and reddish human skull with a snake crawling in one eye socket and coming out the other. It seemed just perfect for attracting a man if he were a psychopathic serial killer. Wow, to each her own.
There seem to be tattoos everywhere and I wondered what I would get if I would. Would it be my wife’s name? Probably not since she has a man’s name. Would I get “Mom” on my no longer impressive bicep? Then I remembered an old Fanny Crosby song, “Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word.” II Corinthians 3:3 is a fabulous verse. Paul wrote, “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 tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” That is so perfect. We are letters from Christ hoping that when people read us they will discover the sweetness of salvation.
Emily Dickinson, our Massachusetts poet, wrote, “This is my letter to the world, that never wrote to me, the simple news that Nature told, with tender majesty.” I want my letter to the world to be the simple news that Jesus told. God loves us with tender majesty.
Written by Roger Bothwell on June 24, 2014
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org