Tagged

 

I live the perfect distance from the railroad tracks. Far enough away that the chug-chugging doesn’t wake me up at night; close enough that I occasionally get caught by a train on my way into town. This gives me an opportunity to admire the brilliant artwork on the sides of the cars. 

 

In case you didn’t pick up on the sarcasm, it’s there. I’m not a fan of graffiti, and as I watch car after car roll by, I can’t help but wonder why all those gifted art-ists aren’t painting on canvas instead of rusted metal. Or why they’re not using oil paints or watercolors instead of spray cans. But hey, who am I to judge? I can bare-ly draw a balanced stick figure with a number two pencil on a piece of notebook paper. 

 

I do admire the talent some of these renegade Renoirs display. This type of spray paint art, splayed illegally across a public canvas, is a form of tagging. It’s the artist’s way of leaving his/her mark on a place, of saying, “I was here, and I made a difference.”

 

Isn’t that really what we all want – to leave our marks behind, long after we’ve left a place? To make a difference . . . to say, “I was here, and this place is changed for it.” That’s my desire, anyway. While I doubt I’ll be rushing to Wal-Mart to buy massive amounts of spray paint, I do hope to leave behind my own form of tagging. 

 

Interestingly, most taggers don’t use their real names, on account of it being illegal and all. So they don’t really do it for personal gain . . . they just want to leave something behind . . . something that will last, after they’re gone.

 

In preparation for writing this article, I’ve given this matter a lot of thought. At least ten minutes, anyway. And honestly, I don’t care if people remember my name. But I do want to leave behind something that will last. I hope, after I’m gone from a place, the people I encountered will remember love, kindness, and grace. Those are my tags, and I’m still working to perfect them. 

 

That’s what God wants, too. He longs to leave His mark on each of us. But the cool thing is, He wants to use us—as in, you and me—to leave marks on the world. We are His cans of spray paint, his watercolors, his chalk and charcoal. When we allow Him to control our lives, He becomes the master artist, and we become the medium. 

 

With God as the painter, the illustrator, or the sculptor, we can be certain the final work will be of the highest quality, and that it will last. When He puts His mark on us, our lives become like a stamp, used over and over again, tagging those around us with His love. But the finished product doesn’t happen overnight. Unlike some of those on-the-run train-yard taggers, God’s art takes a lifetime to complete. But we can be certain, when He’s done, we’ll have a masterpiece.

 

I think that’s a pretty good way to be remembered. 

 

“He has made everything beautiful in its time,” Ecclesiastes 3:11.