Jesus Is "Pro Tattoo"?

I love to tease my wife that I'm going to get a tattoo. After reading an excerpt from Spurgeon's, "Morning and Evening," I can tease her even more that now I have scriptural warrant to get a tattoo! Relax. I'm kidding. I'm not getting one. At least not today. The 'right or wrong' debate is for another time. Suffice it to say I'm not getting a tattoo because I like change too much and I don't think I will like it when I'm older and my skin is saggy and wrinkled. Enough of that. Back to the more important issue at hand. I marveled at a new thought this morning from Isaiah 49:16:

"Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands."

What? Jesus has tattoos on his hands? That's what it says. "I have engraved you on the palms of my hands." What else does "engrave" mean? It means the same thing as "inscribe" or "chisel" or "carve." It's the same kind of thing that happens when a name is chisled into a graveside tombstone, or when two lovers carve their names into a tree in their favorite park, or when Billy the Biker gets "M.O.M." tattooed on his shoulder. Jesus Christ has done this on the palms of His hands... with my name. Listen, silliness aside, what an incredible thing. And lest you're tempted to think this is some kind of man-centered discussion, let Spurgeon set it in the proper perspective (Morning and Evening, Nov. 7):

"Heaven and earth may well be astounded that rebels should obtain so great a nearness to the heart of infinite love as to be written on the palms of His hands."

It seems impossible doesn't it? That the Lord of the Universe would stoop so low as to save undeserving, wretched rebels like you and me? And yet He has. In fact, the Holy Trinity conspired to do just that before anything was ever even created. Now, if that's true, why do I ever struggle with doubting the Lord's love for me? I'm not alone. I find myself in good company. Just before this awesome declaration in verse 16, Isaiah laments in verse 14:

"But Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me."

How many times have I said that? Spurgeon again:

"How amazed the divine mind seems to be at this wicked unbelief! What can be more astounding than the unfounded doubts and fears of God's favored people? The Lord's loving word of rebuke should make us blush. He cries, 'How can I have forgotten you when I have graven you on the palms of my hands? How dare you doubt my constant remembrance, when the memorial is set on my very flesh?' O unbelief, how strange a marvel you are! We do not know which to wonder at most: the faithfulness of God or the unbelief of His people. He keeps His promise a thousand times, and yet the next trial makes us doubt Him. He never fails."

Spurgeon goes on to say that it's not just our name that Christ has tattooed on his hands. It's everything about us. He is mindful of everything:

"I have graven your person, your image, your case, your circumstances, your sins, your temptations, your weaknesses, your needs, your works. I have graven you (carved you, inscribed you, chiseled you, tattooed you), everything about you, all that concerns you. I have put altogether there. Will you ever say again that your God has forsaken you?"

And then I thought of the song we sing so often in church, "Before the Throne of God Above." I will never sing this verse the same way again:

"My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on his heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands,
No tongue can bid me thence depart."

And so we all should cry out with the desperate father in Mark 9, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" Jesus will reply again and again, just like He did with Thomas the first time, "Put your finger here, and see my hands... Do not disbelieve, but believe."