Anyway, I have been debating getting a tattoo for years, but never very seriously. More like, I think one day I should get a tattoo. The problem is I could not never decide on something that I would want to have on my body for the rest of my life. The other problem is that I cannot be buried in Jewish cemetery, be a secret agent (because of identifiable body marks), and my dad may try to dust it off like he did to my sister's.
Tonight I finally decided what tattoo I want...if I ever get one...I have a low pain threshold so leave me alone. It would be on my back and centered between my spine and right shoulder blade and about two and a half inches from the base of my neck. The image is a ring with the inner border of the circle bordering a symmetrical cross. In the ring are block Latin inscriptions, "Credo in Unum Deum" at the top and "Solus Christus" at the bottom. They mean, "I Believe in only one God" and "Only Christ."
Why would I get something engraved on my body that I believed so steadfastly? I think that perhaps it is an overwhelming conviction that cannot be contained inside our beings and so must be manifest on the outside. I'm not just talking about faith here, I am talking about life in general.
In order us to do something, it starts with the thought, "I want to do x." The next step is taking the thought and making it action or manifesting it outwardly. If this is the case, why do I feel the need to get a tattoo about my beliefs? Shouldn't they already be known to those around me?
Listen to 2 Corinthians 3:3, "You show that you are a letter from Christ...written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." Our lives are supposed to be obviously committed to Christ and the glory of God our Father. The author of a letter does not hide their identity, so we should not hide our identity from the world as being sent from God to proclaim His goodness. What good is a letter that is never presented and never read? It is useless.
Let's make sure our lives are not useless. Let's proclaim that today is the day of salvation. That today we refuse to be silenced by circumstance or criticism. We are living testaments of God and we cannot be hidden, we are to be read aloud on every corner, street, and alley. We proclaim that there is one God and He is Christ!
So, what about the tattoo? The tattoo is irrelevant. I may or may not. My love for the Creator is represented in my attitudes and thus my actions. Am I against them? No, but it may be that a tattoo could limit me in future foreign endevours. Who knows, one day I may show up at your doorstep with a bandage and some ink on my right shoulder blade.
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