Ugly Scars
Scars are funny things. Some people want to hide them and others wear them like badges of honor. Most guys like showing their scars and telling the great stories behind them. I’m no exception.
I have several unique scars and a couple unique stories behind them. One scar on the bottom of my right foot goes from the edge all the way accross and to the arch. It was a painfully nasty event. I was about 11 and was enjoy the delights of summer, running barefoot and having fun. I was up at the school playground, we lived very near the school in Leverett’s Chapel, Tx for a number of years (up through part of Jr. High). I say school, because in Leverett’s Chapel, there is one school, K-12. We had about 500 kids, K – 12.
Anyway I was running and playing and decided to go down the slide, and when I hit the bottom, there in the sand was a half of a coke bottle and I landed right on it. Now I dont remember every seeing that much blood! Freaked me out a little. Then I realized I was alone and how do I get help? That freaked me out more. I sat on the end of the slide for a moment and realized I was developing a pool of blood in the dirt. I took off my shirt and wrapped it around my foot. That seemed to slow the blood and then I set off toward home, hoping on one foot. Home never seemed so far away! . . Don’t worry, I made it home got a few stitches and moved on with life.
The scar is mostly faded now and hardly noticeable if you are not looking for it. I remember hobling for a few weeks as the cut healed and then for years I could see the scar. Many years have past and now that whole experience is a mere memory. There is no more pain and hardly any evidence that it ever happend. And of course no one would ever know unless I took off my socks and shoes to show you!
Why tell you that story? It’s about healing. When we are wounded, initially there is a great pain, a big mess, and some fear. Once we get bandaged, or stitched, the wound is closed, but it is sore and very tender. As time passes and the body does its work, the skin seams up, the tissue bonds together and toughens. On the really big wounds, we typically develop scars. Some are painful for awhile, but as time passes, so does the pain. Eventually even the hurt and memory fades a bit.
God’s ability to heal our emotional wounds is just as great (even more in my opinion!) as the healing He equipped our bodies for. At times we can feel broken, almost beyond repair, seemingly at our end. This is where I like reading the Psalms David wrote. In particular, Psalm 18, in the sixth verse David says “In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.” and then later in the that Psalm, he says “He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me.”
I love the phrase, “He brought me out into a broad place” at times emotionally I feel narrowed in, almost as if the walls are closing in on me. But when I call out, He never fails to take me out back into the broad place, where I can breathe and see again. And over time that thing fades, and becomes just another scar.
How are you today? Do you have any gaping emotional wounds? Things that haven’t healed? Hurts that still tinge with pain? Call out to God. Yep, God can do it. When we feel up against it. Call out to Him. He awaits to rescue and save.
