I was sitting in the car in front of my house crying. For several days I had been thinking about a wedding our family had attended the previous weekend. The wedding was such a testimony of God’s faithfulness to this bride and groom through multiple generations that I was moved to tears. Watching this ceremony had caused me to look at my past; the experiences, events, and life situations of my own doing and those that were thrust upon me. “God, why couldn’t I have had that life”?, was the question I had been dwelling on.
“Tony, you just don’t like scars”, was God’s response. I was stunned. He continued, “Look at your neighbor’s house”. Tom (not his real name) lived next door. We had been taking his kids to church with us for several years. Tom struggled with daily life. He was abused as a child and was raising young children as a single dad. His wife’s death to cancer many years before was a constant source of pain. Years of substance abuse and hard living had made Tom a hurt and angry man. He was destroying himself and his family. God continued, “What do you have to offer Tom if you have never had a struggle or difficulty to push through. The scars in your life are a testimony of my healing in you. You once were wounded and now you are whole. What do you have to offer Tom if your life had been perfect”?
I looked down at my leg and recalled the surgery I had several years before. The long scar on my knee was a testimony that I once was wounded, but God had healed me. Torn ligaments were now whole so that I could play with my kids. The scar is ugly, but God’s healing is beautiful. I could choose to see beauty in that scar. I could also choose to allow God to help my neighbor through the testimony of His healing in my personal struggles.
How I choose to see my visible and hidden scars is a decision I have to make regularly. Do I wish I never had them, or do I view them as a testimony of God’s work of grace and mercy in my life? I need to allow God to work through the scars of my life so that others may know He is the healer of our wounds.
So so good