Sealin' the Arm

Back in April I decided to get a tattoo. Not realizing that when you tell people you're getting a tattoo on April 1, no one takes you seriously.:) It's all healed and un-swollen now so I thought it was time to get it out into Internet world...

Photo taken by DnK Photography

It takes about 3 separate pictures to see the whole thing on a flat image but you get the idea and here are the specs...
**The footprints are Jairus's actual footprints. I brought in his inked prints which I got at the hospital and the artist traced them to get the details right.
**His name is above and below it reads "...and so will always be with the Lord" which is taken from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17...


But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 


This passage of Scripture has continued to minister to me over the last 5 months. In that I know one day the rest of us will join Jairus in the presence of Jesus (either by way of death or Jesus coming back to Earth) and that my little boy is continually with the Lord. That's his gift of having left this life so soon. So the words fill me with hope for the future and joy for the present.

For those of you wondering - yes, it hurt. But I love it. I love having the physical representation of my son with me. He was here. He's real. It matters. I like that people ask about it and it gives me a chance to share our story, and our hope that is in Jesus.

I hate that He's not in my arms. But because that's not an option for me, I'm grateful to have his footprints there instead.