Graffiti

To get into town, I take a road that crosses the railroad tracks.

Bemoaning my bad timing while sitting in my car, waiting for a very long train the other day, I noticed almost all the train cars had graffiti painted on them.

Some of the artwork, if you could call it that, were pretty primitive—just black stick lettering or drawings marked up the sides of the cars.

Others were elaborate—multicolored symbols and words, with the letters overlapping creatively. A few had shading and three-dimensional flourishes.

The artists had used a lot of inspiration in these stylized works.

The train picked up speed, and I could not make out the words, but it was clear the artists had a message to convey. They wanted to make a statement—they wanted to leave a mark. Back home, I did a little research and learned that train car graffiti originated in the USA during the Great Depression, when out-of-work men, sometimes called hobos, would ride the rails, using graffiti to leave messages.1 They were people with no platform or voice in the social milieu. The practice picked up steam in later years, and the invention of aerosol spray paint certainly had an impact. Of course, painting graffiti on the side of a train car is a violation of the law unless you have permission from the owner, something which likely never occurs.

But these would-be artists were still intent on leaving their mark.

Whatever the risk, they were highly motivated. It got me wondering.

What am I so passionate about that I would be willing to go to extraordinary lengths to convey a message? Social justice? Caring for the disenfranchised? Fighting poverty and homelessness? Spreading the gospel? These are issues Jesus promoted.

He came to offer hope to the disenfranchised, to those who did not have a voice, and to those who lived on the margins. Should not this give us a lot of reasons to talk about His remarkable life and the causes He stood for? So where will I leave my “mark”? How will I communicate with those around me? What kind of message will I leave behind? Dear Lord, help me to consider my opportunities every day as I look for creative ways to share Your message of love.

Linda Nottingham