Does God have tattoos?

   I don't know why I am often amazed at the way God uses phrases, images, and even slang, from our current culture when He speaks to us.  Why wouldn't He use our current world and circumstances to illustrate His point?  Any good teacher does so. Still, it always takes me by surprise (and usually makes me laugh).
   I've been reading two such examples in the oft-referred-to Hebrew Word Study book I continue to relish. I'll select just one for today to keep this post succinct, as I try to do in this blog so you can be assured you will be able to read the post as soon as you see it (and not wait until the later which never comes). 😉
   I've always loved Adonai's assurance that our names are written/engraved on His hand once we accept His invitation of adoption. What I didn't know was that many ancient cultures believed that one's 'heart' was centered in the palm.  Assyrian mothers often had their sons' names tattooed on their palms when their sons grew up and went into the army, to represent their continued love and care for them and the connection that would always remain. This tattoo on the hand kept their sons close to 'their heart.'
   The extended meaning of the word for forget ('I will not forget you') in Isaiah 49, says Chaim, is I will not leave or neglect you. Unfortunately, many with whom I've spoken cannot say that about their earthly parents, some of whom not only neglected them but caused them harm, physically or emotionally.
   Whether or not you had parents who loved, cared for, and nurtured you when you were growing up, Your Heavenly Father promises always to do so. Your name is tattooed in His palm through much pain and sacrifice. You are never distant from His mind.  In fact, He is aware of Your every move and thought and circumstance. He longs for you to be just as aware of His and of His tender heart towards you.
   When my children were small and I had to be away from them, it was like there was a band stretching from my heart to theirs. I could feel the pull, the tug on my heart every moment until I returned to them (or they to me). They were on my heart and mind. It isn't all that much different now that they're grown and live their own lives in God's care away from me. Our Heavenly Father still sees our name written in His palm no matter how old we are....raising our own little ones or dealing with the aches and pains of old age.
   Don't every forget how treasured you are, should you never have experienced it from a single other human being or even been betrayed by those who should have loved you the most. You can't even number the tender thoughts of love He has toward you.  Love Him back with as much whole-hearted abandonment as you're able, and you will find He is the embodiment of the perfect Parent of which you've always dreamed.
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Isaiah 49:15-16 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

¹⁵ Can a woman forget her child at the breast,
not show pity on the child from her womb?
Even if these were to forget,
I would not forget you.
¹⁶ I have engraved you on the palms of my hands,
your walls are always before me.”

Psalm 139: 1-18
Adonai, you have probed me, and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I stand up,
you discern my inclinations from afar,
³ you scrutinize my daily activities.
You are so familiar with all my ways
⁴ that before I speak even a word, Adonai,
you know all about it already.
⁵ You have hemmed me in both behind and in front
and laid your hand on me.
⁶ Such wonderful knowledge is beyond me,
far too high for me to reach.

⁷ Where can I go to escape your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I climb up to heaven, you are there;
if I lie down in Sh’ol, you are there.
⁹ If I fly away with the wings of the dawn
and land beyond the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand would lead me,
your right hand would hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Let darkness surround me,
let the light around me be night,”
¹² even darkness like this
is not too dark for you;
rather, night is as clear as day,
darkness and light are the same.

¹³ For you fashioned my inmost being,
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I thank you because I am awesomely made,
wonderfully; your works are wonders —
I know this very well.
¹⁵ My bones were not hidden from you
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes could see me as an embryo,
but in your book all my days were already written;
my days had been shaped
before any of them existed.
¹⁷ God, how I prize your thoughts!
How many of them there are!
¹⁸ If I count them, there are more than grains of sand;
if I finish the count, I am still with you.