As girls, we tend to classify scars as ugly reminders of whatever pain or blood we suffered through. The worst is when something really stupid happens and you end up with a scar. Like when you cut yourself shaving. Or like the time I was playing capture the flag.
I was running full force down a hill when someone came up behind me and tagged me. The force of the tag plus my momentum sent me out of control, arms flailing, down the rest of the hill. Things turned into slow motion as I tried to put on the breaks, noticing the people around me staring with sympathy, knowing this would probably make it to my top 10 most embarrassing moments.
Sure enough, my legs tangled together and I went down hands and knees first. And of course, I waited until the concrete was available as a landing site before I hit the ground. That was more than three years ago, and I still have scars on my knee and three different places on my hand.
I think that some people have the wrong idea when it comes to scars. Most of the scars I have are from playing sports and from surgeries. I consider those my battle wounds. I’m proud of them and would be disappointed if they had not scarred.
They are a reminder of what I went through. They are symbols that I am strong enough to overcome pain. I was talking about this with a friend the other day and realized the strong parallelism that can be drawn between physical scars and emotional scars or scars that come from the pain that life brings.
Just like physical scars, emotional scars can be looked at in different ways. I can look at my scars and think how ugly they are. I can think they are only a reminder of the hurt that I have gone through, and I can try to hide them. Plus, if touched a certain way they can still hurt. It is easy to get caught up in thinking that we have to appear perfect and untouched. That people will look at our scars and will either back away in disgust or give unwanted sympathy.
Thinking about our scars in this way only holds us back and makes it easier to make the same mistakes over and over again. This is the way I choose to look at my scars: They are a reminder of God’s faithfulness. Each scar was once an open wound that was painful and unpleasant and messy. But God healed the wound and left me with a reminder of what I went through.
My scars are a daily reminder that you cannot go through life without getting hurt at times, but God will always give you strength to get through, and he will always heal you. My scars are also a reminder to not repeat past mistakes. If my past mistakes just went away, and I never thought about them again, I would most likely make the same mistakes all over again. But because I have reminders, I think twice before going about something the same way.
This does not mean you should expose the world to your every scar, but it does mean you should not be ashamed. So how will you look at your scars? Will you try to cover them up, embarrassed because they show how human you are? Or will you thank God for them, realizing how he showed you his grace through each and every scar?
