In the spring of 1960, we went to Florida for my first
visit. Mom picked my sister and me up after school in our first station wagon,
a two-tone, white on some color green I have never seen again. A 1960
Ambassador 880, it had a 3-speed shift on the column and black and green
patterned vinyl seats, easy to clean with just a wipe of a damp rag. White
walls and bullet crease raised fins in the back said “even family cars can look
chic”.
Pulling off our boots to be stored in the back seat, we
climbed over the tail gate into a padded sleeping/play area in the back, and we
were off—Mom and Grandpa in the front; Grandma, suitcases, the picnic thermos
bag, maps and Grandma’s knitting bag in the back seat; and Jamie and me in the
back.
In Florida, we hit the sights: Cypress Gardens, Weeki Wachee
Springs, the glass-bottomed boat, the Sea Aquarium, the snake garden, and other
places I can’t recall. At each place, some kind person put a bumper sticker on
our car. When they ran out of bumper space, they started using the tailgate. By
the time we were done with our trip, we were a rolling billboard for the entire
state of Florida
Two things I learned: black vinyl seats get so hot in the
sun that you can burn your legs when you sit without a towel, and bumper
stickers are almost impossible to get off after twenty-four hours.
In Ephesians we hear that we too have been marked. This is
no bumper sticker to be removed, it is the permanent mark of the cross.
Although it is invisible for most of the year, we display it on Ash Wednesday
as an advertisement of who and whose we are. When it is visible, it is a sign
of our mortality, the symbol of death and shame, but when it is invisible, it proclaims
our salvation in Christ . Either way, this mark says,
“I have been to the waters of baptism. I belong to Christ .”
Prayer
We thank you, Lord, for putting your mark upon us, claiming
us through drowning death and resurrection living in you. May our lives be an
advertisement of your kingdom. Amen
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