Recently I was reading The Message and found Eugene Peterson’s translation of Psalm 17. My attention was arrested as I read the following passage…
I call to you, God, because I'm sure of an answer. So--answer! bend your ear! listen sharp! Paint grace--graffiti on the fences; take in your frightened children who are running from the neighborhood bullies straight to you. Keep your eye on me; hide me under your cool wing feathers From the wicked who are out to get me, from mortal enemies closing in. v.6-9
Grace –Graffiti….hmmm…that phrase made me think…The Oxford English Dictionary shed new light on these words. Consider these word meanings….
Grace-noun 1. elegance of movement. 2. (in Christian belief) the free and unearned favour of God.
Graffiti / gr feeti/ - plural noun (sing. graffito / gr feeto/) treated as sing. or plural. unauthorized writing or drawings on a surface in a public place. - verb, write or draw graffiti on.
Grace-Graffiti…Grace, the free and unearned favour of God…Graffiti…writing or drawings on a surface. Grace Graffiti…the free and unearned favour of God written on the lives of his people. Wow! What a thought….God writing His grace on the surfaces of our heart.
What a thought!
1 comment:
i came across another reference of graffiti in my reading from the Message this morning. Job 13:4-5, "I'm going directly to God. You graffiti my life with lies. You're a bunch of pompous quacks! I wish you'd shut your mouths - silence is your only claim to wisdom."
At first, the word caught my attention but then it broadened. Thanks for being such a good friend during all this. Thanks for not trying to make sense of things. Thanks for not making up answers. Thanks for consistently pointing me toward God's grace graffiti, when lots of others have their spray cans out and are itching to use them.
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