I have two daughters; they are in their twenties. And like a majority of their generation, tattoos have been appearing on the canvas of their bodies. One of my girls was encouraging me recently to get matching tattoos together with her. I wasn’t totally on board with that, but it got me thinking.

“If” I were to get a tattoo – apart from the idea of “matching” tattoos – what would I want to inscribe on my body? My thoughts ran along the lines of “something true”: some truth I wanted to remember and never forget. And since it’s on my body, it should be a truth about myself. That’s how my thoughts ran.

Two words popped into my head as I mused: two opposing words. They were both true of me, but totally opposite in meaning. These are the words: “intolerable” and “beloved”. Both true.

As a soul who has willingly broken God’s commandments over and over again, I am intolerable. The Bible expresses this: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way.” Isaiah 53:6 This is true of me. And this “own way” living is abominable and putrid and unholy in the sight of God. But that is not the whole truth about me.

The other word which just as fairly and accurately describes me is “beloved”. I am beloved of the same God I have sinned against so often. Jesus provided the sacrifice for my intolerability. God loves me. God punished Jesus for my sin. The Bible says: “And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6 “Intolerable” and “Beloved”. Wow!

I continued my tattoo daydream. Where on my body would I place these words of remembrance and truth? One word could keep me from thinking too highly of myself; the other would assure me of my great preciousness to God. Where to put them? Somewhere, I thought, where I would see them frequently. Ah! (with a snap of my fingers) … on the inside, tender skin of my wrists: one on one wrist, one on the other.

As my thoughts expanded so did my imagined tattoos, and I settled on “intolerable but delivered” for my left wrist, and “beloved and at peace” for my right wrist. This was all very therapeutic and good to think on, but then, the idea of “mirrored tattoos” augmented my thoughts.

When the LORD Jesus died on the cross, His arms were stretched out wide exposing the inside of His wrists. And His wrists were “marked” by spikes driven into His flesh. As His suffering was brought before my mind’s eye, I focused in on those wrists. The words I had chosen about myself were mirrored back to me by the real wounds in His hands: one wrist said: “intolerable”! This is why Jesus died. Because my sins and sinfulness are intolerable before a holy God. But this is only half of the mirrored message. His other wrist said: “beloved”! Each of these words, these truths, are emphatically mirrored upon the wrists of the Christ.

Jesus died both because of our unacceptability before God and because of God’s great love for us. We are beloved by a holy God who punished His own Son for our sinfulness. Jesus’ pierced hands mirror back to me the words of my own imagined tattoos: “Intolerable” – which is an awful word. It’s hard to look at. And “beloved” – which is a word of comfort, assurance and grace.

Will I tattoo these words of remembrance upon my wrists? I am not ready for that. But these words, these truths, have already been tattooed upon my mind’s eye. I can call them up at will. I can wonder at the opposing truths they represent. And I can know that I am included in the majestic sweep of God’s great love.

“All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Isaiah 53:6