The Story Behind the Writing

For my 30th birthday, I knew I wanted to do something crazy, do something out-of-the-ordinary (for me), do something edgy. So. I got a tattoo. (All right, don’t roll your eyes, all you crazy people out there.) It was a stalk of wheat and the word dayenu. The wheat represents my times of enough, my times of plenty. I don’t want to hoard those good things like in the parable of the rich fool who built bigger barns to store his stuff…and died. The dayenu is a Hebrew word, meaning “enough.” For times of drought, in times of disappointment, I want to remind myself that I already have enough in Jesus. This tattoo has served me well in the year since.

Dayenu
by Sarah Steele

A little word
I knew it not
But once I heard
I ne’er forgot
It seared my soul
With iron hot
Dayenu means enough

I chose to write it
On my skin
Remind my heart
Where it has been
Lest I fall prey
To lies again
It means more than enough

It’s rested there
For nigh a year
Pulsating out with
Message clear
When just today
An ache drew near
That said, “It’s not enough.”

My heart was longing
For something
True happiness
I thought it’d bring
Fast to my dream
I strove to cling
So I could have enough

Then I glanced down
Toward feet on floor
And heard my heart say,
“I am poor”
But read the message
There once more
And asked, “What is enough?”

It’s not enough
To change my lot
It’s not enough
To hope and plot
It’s not enough
To stew on ought’s
I’LL NEVER HAVE ENOUGH!

And with that
Declaration blurt
That word reached in
Truth to assert
It started work
To heal the hurt
There’s only one Enough

Enough I am,”
My Lord replied
Enough it was,
For you I died
Enough it is
I call you bride
In me, you have Enough.”

Enough? my heart
Knows not this word
Enough? indeed,
My vision’s blurred
But that’s His voice
I’m sure I heard
I know His love
For me’s endured
It’s in His hand
I am secured
I’ll rest in His Enough.

What word would YOU chose to write on your skin?

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