The beach, bikinis, and tattoos…

Posted by Jim Hurtsellers on May 4, 2010 in Daily Bread | 4 comments

Recently, my family and I had the opportunity to spend a few days at the beach. My kids were on Spring Break, and so, loading up the Suburban (we packed more stuff than an Marine Landing Force) we headed down to Florida.

I love the beach! The freshness of the ocean air, the sound of the surf, and the rhythm of the tide coming in and going out; the feel of the sand, cool beneath the waters edge. Yes, I love the beach.

My wife, Christine, loves the beach too. She loves it for all the reasons I do but also because, for her, the beach helps her to decompress. My wife has a very stressful job; a job she loves and is very good at, but a job with incredible demands and pressure. After a few days at the ocean Christine is refreshed and ready for the return to her hectic work world.

My wife and I have different ways of enjoying the beach; I like to take long swims, she has her nails done. (Mani and Pedi, not that I understand this womanly desire but speaking as a man, I am so glad that she has it!) It was during this seaside ritual that an interesting conversation took place…

The place where Christine goes to have her nails done is next to a swimsuit shop that specializes in bikinis and women’s beach ware and some of the girls that work in the bikini shop also work in the nail salon. On this particular day, the 20 something girl that was doing Christine’s nails may have been working next door earlier, or perhaps she was going there later, or it was just because it is the beach, anyway she was dressed in beach attire. My wife noticed that the girl had a few tattoos, and she asked her about them. After the girl described each of them, Christine commented that one of the tattoos in particular, was very lovely. The girl was surprised. Apparently, earlier in their conversation the fact that I was a pastor had come up, so the girl asked Christine what I would think of her because she had tattoos. Christine explained to the girl that I would not think badly of her at all, and that Jesus wants people who love Him to love other people just like He loves them. Christine told her loving other people like Jesus, in part, means seeing them through His eyes, not judging them through human eyes. For a couple of moments the girl became very quiet. When she spoke, she said this, “I wish there were more pastors on this island that thought that. We could use them here. I have never met one that didn’t make me feel like I was being judged. It makes me feel like their Jesus isn’t so good.”

Ouch! How sad it is, that we who say, we love Jesus, so often do such harm to people by not loving them. In today’s Scripture, we see how Jesus looked at people with compassion. Christ-likeness calls us to learn Jesus’ heart of compassion, to see beyond the outward appearance, into the depth of the person, and see the value of their souls. It is seeing people as Jesus sees them…hurting, broken, desperately in need of love and forgiveness, desperately in need of Jesus…tattoos and all!

Heavenly Father; Please help me to see people through Jesus’ eyes. Help me to love them just because you love them, as you love me. Forgive me for those times when I have looked at people and judged them without your perfect knowledge and certainly without your perfect love. Help me to see people more clearly, to love people more surely, and help the people that I see through your eyes, to see you in me. Thank you God, In Jesus name Amen.