Why did you get that tattoo?

I was checking out at Trader Joe's the other day when I saw a huge tattoo on the checker's arm. It was 3 or 4 dead skulls. Huge. It covered most of his forearm. I couldn't imagine why anyone would want death tattooed all over themselves so I asked, 

"Why did you get that tattoo?" He said, "It has a story. My mom was a drug addict and an alcoholic and she left me and my brothers and sisters. My dad left too. We had a bunch of bad step fathers and never had a real home." Pointing to each skull proudly he said, "See this is me, and my brothers and sisters. We are lost souls. We are all alone in the world."

Are you kidding me? Who would want to identify themselves in such a horrifying way. To remind themselves every moment of every day that they are a lost soul? All alone?

I actually blurted out, "No you are not alone. That is what God is for. That's what Jesus is for. He will never leave you alone." He told me he had tried church but it didn't seem close or comfortable to him. I told him I  didn't go to church either these days and that I had had some very difficult times of being abandoned too, but that it actually led me right to my real Father who told me I would never be alone. I suggested instead of church he could just read the story in the Bible of the Prodigal son to see who he really was and who God was…to see what kind of father he could have if he wanted.

I thanked him for telling me his story. Did he listen? Did he hear? Did he want something other than being a lost soul for the rest of his life? I have no idea. But I heard him and I realize there are so many people who live life feeling alone and abandoned when there is an answer bigger and better than anything they could have imagined. We all get the chance to continue to identify ourselves by awful things that have scarred and wounded us in the past, or move on into a new life and new identity. 

I love this verse and cling to it every time my mind wanders back into the past and hurtful events in my life...

"Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!
Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."

I have a desert of bad things in my life. There is a wasteland in my past. But I want the new thing God promised for me. I want a good thing instead of a wasteland...Drink that satisfies and  keeps me alive. I don't want to be a lost soul. Why would I want that when I can be found? Anyway, I am praying for my new friend to want to be found and made alive. Maybe someday he will replace the symbol of death on his arm with the beautiful new thing that has sprung up and given him life.