Tattoos, Piercings and Graffiti

#1764

"Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges."

-Herman Melville

            The worst way to start your day is like the rest of the world with a mind set, "And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful." (Mark 4:19) Over the trenches of political correctness Satanic developments there are still normal people. Satan always betrays his partners in crime. In a post modernist world of broken cultures those of us with more or less conventional attitudes find it extremely difficult to understand why some of our fellow human beings delight in violating-challenging the beauty of Jehovah god, creator of the universe. The word spoke and nothingness became something-ness.  The word spoke and everything in the world filled with beauty which the mind of man can only comprehend, never counterfeit the 110 elements of the earth, the 12 music tones of the earth, laws of nature, colors, everything in absolute symmetry and proportion. The mind of man is unable to comprehend the holiness of God. His ability to capture beauty.

            This world traveler has experienced/sensed (those sightless) the beauty of nature, as God developed it on every continent of the world.  We understand why god observed and saw that it was good (Genesis:1:24.) Nothing is uglier than finding God's handiwork defaced. Nothing is uglier than finding graffiti on a work of art, ugly symbols on a magical, balanced, work of symmetry. I remember so well the first time I was in the great opening in Petra, that great city of stone with its magnificent columns. Some jerk had actually defaced one column with graffiti. 

            Of course there are accidents of nature, the weirdos, circus people who display their deformities. There have always been those that have slowed down to watch a car crash. Who get a thrill from human beings battering one another in the boxing ring or the ancient gladiator arenas. I will admit that I have been to a bull fight both in Spain and South America. Ancient sports, people got a thrill from seeing lions tear apart Christians. Today sports people enjoy seeing millionaires abuse one another as they fight over a ball.  As the cruelest inhuman activity, warfare, has "progressed" from the closeness of the sword and bayonet into the inhuman activity of planes and drones dropping bombs from a huge distance, "the caretaker" of the planets must have revulsion with the decadence of his chief creation, Mankind.

            There has always been a fascination with the abnormal. I remember, so well, as a child, a farmer in the community had a cow who gave birth to a three legged calf. People wanted to go by and see this abnormal calf. The farmer started to charge to look at the calf. Warts, deformities, were never "beauty spots."  A polite society learned to ignore them. People invested in beauty appreciating great works of art wanted the comfort of manicured lawns, sculptures in parks, colors on buildings, the beauty of flowers which no horticulturist has ever been able to reproduce. Just in America billions of dollars are spent each year on supplements which we believe compliment our diets, give us better health. Our greatest national expense is healthcare. We do everything possible to live better and longer.  Every parent wants his child to be perfect.  Billions of dollars are spent on designer clothing.  Special education, America is besieged by universities that would make the ancient philosophers blush.  Why then, please tell me, where the thrill came from which has caused so many young intelligent people to deface/abuse themselves with tattoos, piercings. Those of us who are old wish we had the skin and musculature of the young. Why would any parent allow a child on whom they have spent a life preparing for the future to subject that body to the criminal stupidity of introduction of pathological disease through tattoos, skin scars, or piercings in other areas of the body. There is nothing more dangerous to the human body than making disease entrance easier. We know the problems just from artificial knee or hip replacements. We know the problems of the pacemaker/stints or other artificial means of prolonging life. Why then would anyone take the risk of decorating/desecrating the body with nonsense and in the case of a girl, a "tramp stamp?"

            This old blind veteran, sightless for many years is mostly home bound. But, I am told many people in church are tattooed/pierced. Who do they think they are fooling?  Satan has always been able to mark his followers...language, clothing and habits. Just as the western rancher branded his livestock with a tattoo/brand. So Satan clearly has his crowd "branded" with tattoos. Every human being, the world over, has an empty place in his heart for some thing or some one in which the person them self cannot fill.  There are religions/cults/traditions around the world seeking to fill that emptiness. The road to hell is paved with religion. It should not be strange that many "seekers" will find their way to the church pew.  But, as the Apostle Peter found, there is a difference in religion and relationship. Peter walked and talked with God as Jesus' feet caressed the land around the Sea of Galoli. Peter, the man who denied his precious lord, who actually walked on water. Who when he was crucified insisted on being crucified upside down, learned forgiveness. There are too many unrepentant-unrestricted church members who do not have an intimate relationship with God.  Christianity is not complicated, just tough. We must be tough, stand, never turn your back to Satan. With all the sincerity and humbleness of my heart, never yield to Satan's temptation of marking our body for him. He knows who "owns" us.  When Christ redeems us, we are a new creation in Him, ready to be seen and read of men (1 Corinthians 3:1-3.) I like to wear a cross on my jacket. I like for my fellow man to know whose side I am on.

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31