In which I try to sound really deep and spiritual.

In one of those rare instances when I was watching TV, I found myself watching a reality show about a tattoo shop on The Learning Channel called Miami Ink. While I was watching, a customer came in and wanted to get a tattoo (ironically) on his back. It was to be of two hands pressed together as if a person were praying, surrounded by devils on one side and angels on the other. It was to represent a milestone in the man's spiritual journey. Anyways, while he and the artists were discussing what kind of angels and devils were to be on his back, he said, "Well, I talked about it with God, and we agreed that pin-up girls were the way to go."

Now, if you are from the conservative church up-bringing that I grew up in, I'd imagine your first reaction would be along the lines of, "Well, he certainly didn't talk to God about it, because God would never approve of that." I say that because it was my first reaction, too. But, seeing as my brain was idle, due to the fact that I was watching TV, it started kicking that thought around. Now the point of my post is not to argue about the morality of immorality of tattooing,
or pin-up girls dressed in both devil's horns and angel's wings. What occurred to me was that I don't know what that guy's life was like. This was not his first tattoo by any means, and one of them read, "Life is Pain." Or maybe it was "Pain is Life." Either way, I'm willing to bet he's had a harder go at it than I have, which I can't imagine at all. Given that, then there is no way that I can "know" how he relates with God.

Then my mind went an entirely different direction with this train of thought. First, God never does anything the same way twice. Have you read about Christ healing people's blindness? For one, he casts out a demon, for another he touches a man's eyes, another man he spits on, and even another he makes mud and smears it on the man's eyes. If God isn't formulaic, then wouldn't it make sense to say he has the same no-standard approach to His relationships with everyone? When I think about my friendships, there are those friends I play poker with, those I talk about nonsensical stuff with, those I play video games with, etc., etc. I relate to different people in different ways. How can I expect God to be less complex than myself, especially in this matter? If God can talk to people through things like flowers, or music, or random phrases in a book, could that mean he can relate to this guy with tattoos?

Yeah.

-D out.