Little Pictures

“Do you have any tattoos?”

The little girl circled me inquisitively, picking up one of my hands and examining my arm.

“No tattoos,” I answered. She continued looking anyway, explaining that her teacher and her mom have tattoos. 

“Why don’t you have tattoos?” she asked.

“Well, why do they?” I was hesitant to answer her question without knowing why she was asking it.

“I guess to remind them of things,” she said.

“Well, then, I guess my regular skin does the same thing. It is a little picture of what God has done,” I told her.

She skipped off, satisfied with the answer.

But her question kept me thinking. I keep pictures on my refrigerator. Christmas cards from years gone by, newspaper clippings, school photos, and funny sayings remind me of people and places that I love. 

They are little pictures that carry a lot of meaning as they point to the real thing.

As Christians, shouldn’t everything we do be a little picture of Who God is and What He has done in our lives?

The Apostle Paul told the Ephesians that their marriages were little pictures: “The two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” 

The writer to the Hebrews said that a father’s discipline is a little picture: “We have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?”

Jesus watched the poor woman put her two coins in the offering box and taught his disciples to look at the little picture: “The rich contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

And what do these little pictures remind us of? The Lord’s love for His church, the Lord’s loving discipline of His children, and our own abject need for the Lord’s provision shine brightly from these little pictures. 

When Mary agreed to become the mother of Christ, it was just one small moment in her life, but it was a little picture of a lifetime of submissive obedience to God’s will.

When Joseph went against his original plan to divorce Mary quietly, he became a little picture of self-sacrifice that pointed forward to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. 

Even as they obeyed the law of the land by traveling for the census and the law of the Lord by keeping the law about childbirth and purification, Mary and Joseph continued to be little pictures of faithfulness drawing us into the reality of God’s faithfulness. 

Our clothing, our marriages, our words, our relationships, our spending habits, our eating, our drinking, and all of our habits and choices should be little pictures of the ultimate reality of God’s love changing our lives.  

Then, His steadfast love, joy, and faithfulness will be written on our sleeves for all to see.