Scars
While visiting eleven year old Marilyn in the hospital recently, memories from my teenage years flooded to mind. Upon entering her room, beautiful Marilyn was reclining in the bed, using a breathing machine for her pneumonia. She was surrounded by family and had declared that she was bored and wanted to go home.
Going back over 40 years, I could place myself in a hospital bed where I laid for a month. My circumstances where different in that I had been in a car accident during the summer, just weeks before entering high school. My head hit the windshield and was cut up pretty bad…my forehead, my eye and even my chin all required many stitches by a plastic surgeon, but the major issues were the internal injuries sustained--holes made in my inside throat from hitting the dashboard.
Like Marilyn, I also had to use one of those breathing machines to rid my lungs of the congestion that had collected in them from the accident. And I too can recall the doctor in the doorway entering my room with the bad news that I still couldn’t go home. However those long, lonely days in the hospital provided me with lots of time to reflect.
Since I had grown up in the church and had asked Jesus to be my Savior at an early age, many of my thoughts revolved around why God had chosen to save me from an accident that could have taken my life. Did He really love me? Did He have a plan and a purpose for my life? Did He have something that He wanted me to do for Him and His kingdom? I figured the answer to those questions must be yes.
Over the years as I look in the mirror, I see the scars from the accident so many years ago and my first reaction is often, “I wish those were gone,” but I quickly turn those thoughts around and say, “Thank you Lord for loving me and having a plan and purpose for my life. Please help me to be used for Your kingdom.”
Jesus too has scars…the scars caused by me and my sin. His hands are proof of His love for each and every one of us. They are there to give us hope. If we choose to ignore what He did for us on the cross those many years ago, it was all in vain, but if we choose to receive His gift, His pain and suffering was worth it all.
Will you choose to acknowledge His scars with thanksgiving that He has paid the penalty for your sins?
Isaiah 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
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