Scars

Scars are the foundation of trust in God. They tell a story of who we are and what we’re all about. They unwrap our stories so others can learn, be comforted by someone who shares their hurts and pain. Scars remain to tell others where we’ve been, what we’ve done, the experience we can apply and how we can help.

Scars come from places unseen – the experiences in our life that are unique to us and make us who we are.

I remember when I was younger and when I knew that my life would not be what I imagined it would. I remember a time when I was naive and my concerns were who I was going to sit with at lunch. Those times are the ones I cherish in my soul deep down – refusing to let them out for fear I would have to face reality. You see, reality for me is not what I dreamed in my room so many years ago. It’s not what’s on television or the movies. It’s not what young girl’s magazines portray as life. It’s not Cinderella and Snow White, all wrapped up neatly in a bow. Reality is life – hard and cruel sometimes, redeemed by the joyous and momentous times. Life is different from what we imagine because our creativity cannot affect it. Our imaginations cannot make outcomes go any differently. God sets the stage for our course of life. He knows what’s going to happen before we’re even born. Does that pain Him? It most certainly does. If you knew what pain and disappointment your child would go through before he or she was born it would tear you up inside. Similar to those parents who knowingly give birth to a son or daughter who’s handicapped in some way, they prepare the way to deal with the differences, the struggles, the pain they’ll face as time goes on. God does the same for us. Some children come out of the womb scarred already. Some have to live life experientially to gain their scars. Either way, scars are who we are…our makeup, our personalities, our reason for living.

But can we make them our reason for living? Some don’t. Some, sadly, make their scars an excuse to end their life. Others walk around spending so much time covering their scars that they live but don’t “live”. And then there are some who embrace their scars to find meaning and purpose and truly live. But how do we find the latter in our lives? How do we stop living through our scars and instead use them to really live?

We live by embracing our hurts, our pains, our past life. We embrace them by accepting what happened as the past. We accept the past by not continuing to live in it. There are those that continue to remember past hurts, exact revenge on abusers, punish the pain-seekers of their past, but that’s what causes more pain. That what causes humanity to get stuck. Being stuck in your past doesn’t allow for healing. It doesn’t allow for movement. It doesn’t allow for success or embracing new ideas. It only hinders our future.

But God made plans for you before you were born to ease your pain. He knew exactly what would happen, the decisions we would make, the decision others would make that affect us. He put into place plans to alleviate our pain. To allow us to continue to live, enjoy our lives, and thrive in joy. Just as a parent of a handicapped child plans, so does God. He places ramps to ease our walk, handlebars to help us up. He establishes educational opportunities to help us develop. He places extra care-giving to nurse us along, and sends extra doses of love to encourage and heal. You can always park right up front in God’s Kingdom.

So how do we change our vision from looking through our scars to our life to looking through our life to our scars? We surrender. We surrender and focus on the hope, the light we have for our future. We take stock of what we’ve been blessed with already and keep our faith that everything is under control and has happened for a reason. We move on. We regenerate our hope, our desires, our life and who we are. Scars may be permanent on the skin but they can also be temporary in our heart.