"Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.'” John 20:27
When I was 6 years old I was required to have surgery to repair a blocked area leading to my kidneys. I stayed in the hospital for a week and the recovery was slow and painful. The scar wrapped around my little waist and is still very prominent 50 years later. But when I look at that scar bad memories don’t come to mind because I had a great time in the hospital being fussed over and spoiled. I’m sure I had incredibly painful days after surgery but the things I remember included the fun I had in the hospital and the absence of severe stomach aches. Fast forward 9 years to a time when I had a bad knee. At 15 my knee would pop out of its joint causing tons of pain. Eventually the cartilage in my knee completely tore in half requiring immediate surgery. That recovery was a very slow and limiting time when all I wanted was to be normal like the other kids. After my knee completely healed it was better than it had been in years. All the pain and suffering that the surgery created was temporary but the benefits were long lasting. I used to teach Sunday School to 5-year-old's and one day this little child came up and said, ‘Mrs. Emmons…you have a run in your hose.’ I thought that was hilarious and realized that was exactly what my scar looked like.
Scars…they are interesting things. They all have a story to tell but many times we silence them by hiding them. So many people have scars that are visible but there are also scars of the heart. Just like our physical scars they tell a story of loss, pain and suffering. They represent the afterlife of messy, broken and fractured circumstances that we have endured. Scars can be ugly and unsightly, but scars can also tell a beautiful story of health, new life and redemption. One of the first things Jesus did as Savior was point out His scars. Those scars boasted of incredible trauma to His body, but beautiful afterlife to His spirit. He brought attention to the individual scars that marked what had been done to Him. God gave Jesus a resurrected body and could have made the scars disappear… after-all, He is God. Lisa Harper, author of Job - A Story of Unlikely Joy suggests that God sees our scars as beauty marks. I feel that God chose to leave those scars on Jesus’s body, because He saw the beauty in what His son did for us. Beauty that through His scars we are healed. Beauty that through His scars we are forgiven. Undeserving scars that ushers us into the arms of our loved ones in eternity. Scars that invite us to live with Him in Heaven one day.
We must also use our scars as stories of deliverance and healing. Some of us might have scars of grief where we have had to say our temporal goodbyes to those we loved most. Some of us might have scars of a prodigal child who in our minds died a million times. Some of us might have scars of betrayal from the very people who should have loved us…could have cared about us…but didn’t. Whatever our scars are…however we obtained them…we’ve earned them because we went through the pain. Lisa also writes, ‘The older I get, the more convinced I am that admittedly flawed {scarred} sinners are the most credible witnesses of the gospel.’ P. 70.
‘On the last day, Jesus will look us over not for medals, diplomas, or honors, but for scars.’ Ruthless Trust, Brennan Manning, p. 48.
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