Spiritual Graffiti

Proverbs 7:1,3 -- "My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart."

Exhausted after a day at the lab where I was officially titled "lab assistant", I made my way through the employee parking lot to find my beat up little car. On the front I had a novelty plate that had Proverbs 7:1 printed on it.  Not the whole verse, just the address.

As I reached the driver's side door and started to climb in, a fellow employee approached me and asked me what the verse was.  At first, I didn't understand what he was talking about.  Then he pointed to the front of my little '86 Chevy Sprint and asked: "what does the verse say?"

I actually had to come around to the front of the car to look at the plate.  I couldn't remember what was on it.  And THEN, I couldn't remember the verse. I looked at him blankly. I was actually shocked that he even knew it was a Bible verse, because he had quite the reputation around the lab and it was a very good one.  But I wanted to answer his question.

I asked him to hang on and then dug around in the back seat [where I always keep a Bible] and found the verse.  I read it to him and just looked at him, waiting for some kind of response.  What he said, actually made me feel horrible.  He said: "You shouldn't have that on the front of your car if you don't even know what it says."

He turned and walked away while putting on his lab coat.

In all the time I worked at that hospital, he never spoke to me except for that one time, when he pointed out I didn't know what I was advertising on my car.  It really  made me think.

The next image I had in my head was that my heart probably didn't have nearly enough graffiti on it.  I had just come out of an autopsy.  The kind ladies in Histology let me sit in and take notes because I had it mind that I would study histology -- so I knew what the heart looked like.  I even weighed the one that they'd taken from the deceased on the table.  And I thought, mine should have writing on it.  Mine should have large letters clearly tagged with bright spray paint and splotches. I want to keep God's words and commands stored within my heart.  Bound to it in big bold print.

I don't advertise on my car anymore. Not really because of the conversation in the parking lot, but because I'm terrified one day my driving will be horrible and somebody will see a Jesus Loves You sticker on my bumper and receive mixed messages -- but I also don't' want to advertise things that I haven't written on the tablet of my heart.

SO....I don't put stickers on my car.....AND, I strive to do better with my memory verses. I strive for more spiritual graffiti.  I want my heart to be lacking for space to squeeze in even one more letter.