I’ve joked for years that I’ll get a tattoo when I have 12 children. Right now, the count is up to 5 (2 running around, 2 miscarriages, 1 in the womb). If I mix in our two Compassion kids, I’m 5 children from a tattoo.
But in the last year or so, I’ve thought, Why not? Why wait? So I’m considering getting a tattoo of 12 tiny stars on my right foot.
Why?
I am a daughter of Abraham, a child of promise. I am one of those, who when Abram looked to the stars and saw the heavenly multitudes, counted as his offspring…heir of the righteous who lived by faith.
Twelve stars, twelve tribes, twelve disciples and apostles, twelve tiny reminders that with each step this is not my home…just a temporary stay.
Like Abraham, God has called me out of my comfortable places, out of the land I know and He has given me a promise of fulfillment, a desire to be made whole…and he whispers, Keep coming…it’s just a little while now.
It’s a legacy of faith I see in the stars. A reminder of God’s ever constant presence, his complete faithfulness, and the comfort that He is the one true thing.
I have met Jesus, the one whom Abraham had but a promise…a mere glimpse though he believed by faith. But I know this promise…this faith walking, already but not yet living…
Jesus is now, but still I feel the strain of not yet receiving what was promised (Hebrews 11:28)…O come, O come, Emmanuel…ransom captive Israel. I feel the longing, I know the pain of this world without Jesus at the helm.
And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 15:5-6
I stand in this legacy of faith. I am one that Abraham was promised. I am reminded in the hall of the faithful saints of the faithfulness of God.
With each step, each star represents a step to be made in faith. Remembering to count His righteous as my own. Trusting not the seen, but the unseen. Seeking the fullness of Him who fills all things.
And I sojourn on.
