Engraved in God's palms.

Another great year at camp has come and gone. Much of it was the same as always. In a good way. A kind of sameness that never loses its meaning and continues to impact those who experience it.

But I also did something new. During the week with the teenagers I was assigned the job of teacher. Thank the Lord there were set lesson plans and that I know Bible stories pretty well. Performing with zero preparation is always a test that reveals what a person knows at their core. And what they don't.

However, what I'm wanting to write about had nothing to do with the class I taught, how I felt about it, or what happened therein. Consider that bit of information bonus material.

I also led a small group that week. That's something I've been doing every year since I joined the staff. The role of small group leader often overlaps with the role of teacher, but the setting and purpose is slightly different. Something else that's different is that I'm responsible for discussion material. No lesson plans.

This is both exciting and terrifying.

Mostly exciting, I think.

When deciding what to talk about in small group I ask myself, "As a human, what are the most important, core-changing lessons that I have learned, which I can share with these other humans in hopes that they will also be changed?" In doing so, our discussions tend to revolve around passages of scripture that have profoundly impacted me and which I hold close to my heart.

I was considering one such passage one day, debating whether I wanted to share it with my group sometime during the week. It's a gem in the book of Isaiah that, to me, has communicated God's love in a way that few other images have.

"'Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.'" Isaiah 49:16

Beautiful.

But almost immediately after I brought it up I felt like I opened up a can of worms which I probably should have left closed. Not closed absolutely but left for another time in which I would have been able to really get at the heart of some issues I was noticing.

They were amazed at the idea of something being etched into God's palms. That was an appropriate response. I was too. But right after their looks of amazement, a hand from one of the girls raised and I heard "So do you think getting a tattoo is wrong?" And I could tell that everyone else was wanting me to answer the same question.

The poor dears, they're still so bound up in law!

Rather than responding to the imagery and being touched by what it represented, their minds immediately went to, "Wait, God's body is marked up? Is God okay with that?"

Whatever a person's opinions are about tattoos, body piercings, and the like, the picture depicted in that passage is still a valid and profound way to communicate how much God loves his creation. It says that he loves us so much that he's willing to make us a part of himself and to suffer pain in order to do so, and not only do we come to be a part of himself, we're on his palms, a place where he will always see us, where we will always be on his mind, where he can hold us.

I'm not sure if I did it well, but that's what I tried to get those girls to see. To look beyond the question of whether it's permissible for a person to get a tattoo, and consider why one might mark their body and the implications of what that means in relation to how God feels toward us. That may have been too tall of a task for 30 minutes in which people are distracted and not paying close attention for longer than five minutes.

But overall, I think it went well. More time would have been nice but despite the lack of it, I don't think it was the can of worms I first feared it would be. That was just me feeling insecure, and fearing that powers higher than me would either disagree with how I responded to the aforementioned question or criticize me for even broaching a subject that could be considered controversial. But, as always, I had nothing to fear.

And I pray that one day each of them can come to be so secure in who they are in Christ that questions of law no longer dominate their thinking. They can just be who they are, the righteousness of God, and such questions won't be so troublesome anymore.