The Blessing of Scars

Scars. Most of us have them. Physical ones. Emotional ones. Some minor. Some painfully deep. They serve as reminders of our past wounds and can hold the ability to stir up powerful emotions. Bitterness. Anger. Regret.

Take my simple scars. On each of my ears I bear the evidence of multiple piercings. Those tiny outer marks cannot even begin to hint at the massive inner scars I accumulated during that rebellious season of my life. I am not saying having my ears pierced over and over again was a sin. But they do serve as a reminder of a time when I had turned my back fully on God. A time full of sinful behavior that left me deeply wounded and filled with remorse.

But God has shown me how my scars can actually be a blessing. Instead of looking at them and allowing myself to drown in feelings of shame, I can look at my scars and remember how far God has brought me from those days. I can allow joy to be stirred in my heart as I remember how His love has saved me and radically changed me.

My heart was blessed when a friend of mine shared with me the story of her sister’s scars. At the age of seventeen, it was discovered she had Nonhodgkin’s Lymphoma. The vine-like cancer the surgeon found strangling her lungs was extensive. He declared she had no hope of survival and roughly stitched her body closed. He saw no reason to be careful with her stitches since she was so obviously going to die.

But God healed her, and now, over 35 years later, those ragged scars can serve as such a tender reminder. A reminder of how God’s report trumped man’s report. A reminder of the time when the enemy tried to take her out, but God had another plan.

Do you have scars? How do those scars impact your life? If you have never let them stir you to thankfulness, maybe ask God to help you look at them in a new light. Allow Him to show you how they can actually be a blessing, how they can be reminders of His mercy, His love, His healing, His deliverance.

And may we not forget, we were not the first ones to bear scars. The lyrics to the JJ Heller song “Control” do not fail to move me to tears.

 “There were scars before my scars,

Love written on the hands that hung the stars,

Hope living in the blood that was spilled for me.”

 Oh, friends, does that move your heart like it does mine? Before I ever got my first wound, Jesus was wounded for me. If nothing else, if you cannot yet feel any thankfulness for your own scars, thank Him for His.

 “But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5, NKJV