tina martin: my life takes the cake

I was stopped at a red light on Highway 280 the other day. The car in front of me had put what I’m assuming was their first and last initial on each side of their car tag. This caught my attention because it was a little different from the three initial monogramming that you see on people’s back windshields. All of the sudden I hear Jerry Seinfeld in my head making some funny comment about how far we’ve taken this monogramming business.

I started to think of all the things I’ve seen monogrammed. There is a big trend with monogramming everything you own whether it be a purse, a shirt, your cell phone and now your vehicle. Some people even monogram the walls in their house. Why? Is there doubt about to whom the wall belongs? Certainly not. And placing someone’s initials on a purse won’t tell a stranger anything about the owner. So why do we do it? I think simply put it personalizes an item and makes it unique to us.

I love to find correlations between everyday life and scripture. And as I was pondering the whole monogramming issue, the Spirit brought to mind a scripture I had read a long time ago.

“See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands”. Isaiah 16a

So many times I find myself going about life, knowing God is there , but not really personalizing him on a very real level. Yet here was the Holy Spirit reminding me that I am engraved on the very palm of God. He has personalized His palm, not with His own initials, but with me. A sinner saved only by grace. It’s wonderful to think about this verse in combination with Psalm 139:14. That verse tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Each one of us is unique. And now we know we are personalized on the palm of God’s hand.

So next time you pick up your monogrammed purse or you pass that monogrammed vehicle, smile and be reassured that you are just as unique and personalized to God.