Forever Marked

Many people have noticed or heard that I had a couple of tattoos done this last month so I wanted to explain what they mean and why I got them done.  For a few years now, I have been saving money and thinking about if this was really something I wanted to do.  

It was on the staff training canoe trip this spring that I was really convinced that this was something I wanted.  The word that I was thinking about getting tattooed was "Beloved" - I am the beloved of Christ, part of the Bride (the Church) who is awaiting the return of the Bridegroom.  I could go on and on about all the thoughts and reasons that have gone through my mind, but it really came down to a conversation I had with God on the most rainy and cold day of the river trip.  Sitting in the bow, silently paddling down the river (I usually don't talk while I paddle, but love the days of silence to think and pray), drenched in cold rain, I simply closed my eyes and kept paddling.

Out loud, I began to sing, "Purify my heart, let me be as gold and precious silver...Refiner's Fire. My heart's one desire is to be holy, set apart for you Lord.  I choose to be holy, set apart for you my Master, ready to do your will....cleanse me from my sin, and make me holy...cleanse me from my sin deep within.."....over and over again as a deep longing and hearts cry.  I felt the rain hit me and it became like a cleansing shower, stripping away some of the hardness of my heart, and I heard the truth of God say over me, "You are clean, I have given you a pure heart.  You no longer need to believe the lies that you are not good enough or not worthy.  The names that you have called yourself for so long are not true, for you are worthy, I have created you in my image.  I love you, my daughter, my beloved."

Again and again those words filled my head and my heart, and with the rain, I let years of lies wash off.  I realized that for most of my life, it was not the pain of what others called me or what my peers thought of me that held me down, but rather those names and things that I called and believed about myself that hindered me from truly stepping into the fullness of who God had made me to be and the plans he had for me..."plans to prosper and not harm you, to give you a hope and a future" (Jer. 29:11).

Now, with the cleansing rain, God was saying, "I have called you by a new name; You are mine...Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him...Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it?" (Is. 43:1, 7,18-19).  I was loved by God! His truth, finally getting from my head to my heart, hit with such clarity and power and the old lies and names washed away.  It was that moment that I knew that everyday I wanted to be reminded of who I was in Christ,that my Father in Heaven things of me and what my true identity is, that I wanted to be forever marked by God that I was His child and belonged to Him...

That same day, we camped next to a huge waterfall and I stood at the edge of the powerful, rushing water feeling renewed and filled with living water.

It truly was a new morning, with new mercies, and new perspective when I got out of the tent the next day!

The hebrew word "Ahab" can mean many things: to love, love for God, act of being a friend, lover, God's love toward man, lovely, loving, loveable, friend, beloved, and appears 208 times in the Old Testament.  

"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength" Deut. 6:5. 

"And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love hIm, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good?  Indeed heaven and the highest heaves belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it" 10:12-14

"I will wash my hands in innocence; So I will go about Your alter, O LORD, That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, And tell of all Your wondrous works.  LORD, I have loved the habitation of YOur house, And the place where Your glory dwells" Ps. 26:6-8.

"He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the goodness of the LORD" 33:5.

"Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; And let those who love Your salvation say continually, "Let God be magnified!"' 70:4.

"Because of the fragrance of your good ointments, Your names is ointment poured fourth; Therefore the virgins love you.  Draw me away!  We will run after you. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in you.  We will remember your love more than wine.  Rightly do they love you.  I am dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, Like the tents of Kedar, Like the curtains of Solomon."  Song of Solomon 1:3-5

My second tattoo is also a long story, but I will just say for now that it is a representation of one of my favourite chapters in Scripture - John 15, and is a visible reminder to abide in Christ.

Two vines, different shades, intertwining, mirroring the character on my wrist and stylized to shape "J's" and then 15 leaves of different shapes of gray. 

"I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.  As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.  This is My commandment, that you love on another as I have loved you. Greater love has on one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  These things I command you, that you love on another."

John 15:5-17