The T-Shirt

She sported the shirt with pride.

I LOVE HOT DADS

I was at the gym when I spotted her. I wondered what went through her mind when she pulled that t-shirt off the rack. Maybe something like: I like guys with kids. I like good looking men. I think I will get a shirt and see if I can snag one.

Good plan.

I snagged a hot dad myself, but a t-shirt like that would have sent him running the other direction.

I’m guessing for this woman in her mid-20s, a t-shirt ad seems like a great plan. But hopefully before long she’ll toss it.. and maybe not long after that she’ll think back and pray no one actually remembers that she once wore it.

You can do that with shirts. Toss them when sanity is regained.

Not so much with tattoos.

I sat across from a guy in the steam room who had a woman’s name tattooed in large letters down his arm.

Leeann.

I wondered if Leeann was his wife, or maybe his daughter. She was definitely someone he loved. Tattoos are far more permanent than t-shirts. Meant for a lifetime. Undying love, commitment, foreverness.

Unfortunately even tattoos are sometimes regretful, In our humanity, we don’t always honor the forevers tattooed on our limbs, across our backs, down our legs.

But what about a carving? Engraving? Where the skin is torn and the scars remain?

Like what Jesus did.

Isaiah 49:16 says, “Behold, I have engraved you on the palm of my hands”. Another version says, “I have carved you on the palms of my hands”. Another, “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands”.

Far better than a tattoo, longer lasting than a t-shirt, we are engraved, carved, inscribed into his hands. Never erased. Never forgotten. Never abandoned. God is not a love ’em and leave ’em type of God, He’s a love ’em forever Savior. He won’t erase our names when we’ve messed up the day. He won’t try to rub out the engraving when we’ve fallen flat, again. His love is inscribed, carved, engraved… into his palm.

Perhaps with a nail.

Oh, how He loves you.