injury: n. Damage to the body of a human or animal. The violation of a person's reputation, rights, property, or interests. Injustice.
healing: n. The process where the cells in the body regenerate and repair themselves.
The psychological process of dealing with a problem or problems.
scar: n. A permanent mark on the skin sometimes caused by the healing of a wound. A permanent mark on the mind.
Glancing at my ankle bone, my eyes caught the tiny scar. I was no more than 4 years old when a stack of 2 x 4 s fell over, trapping my foot. My brother had been assigned the task of piling the lumber so they would be ready for our father who was building a new house for the family. Most certainly I was uninvited help, and the incident verified that. I hadn't noticed the scar or thought about the occurrence in years.
Physical scars are often a personal record we carry on our bodies, marking periods of time and events in our lives, each one with its own unique story. Over the years, mine has been evidenced with stitches. There was a time in my life where an annual trip to the doctor was required--my poor mother. Perhaps for others they are the result of a dreadful bicycle accident, a painful burn, a surgical procedure, scrapes from road rash, a stumble into unforgiving brick hearths or heavy, wooden coffee tables, ad infinitum. I doubt there is a person on the face of this earth who does not possess a physical scar of some sort.
There is the injury, then the healing. And the scars remain--a reminder, sometimes gentle, other times stark, of where we were and what we were doing at an exact moment in our lives, perhaps including the suggestion of having been protected and spared from further harm.
There are other types of injury as well, invisible to the naked eye. These are the situations and circumstances which affect one emotionally, causing hurt, anger, dismay, great angst, and the potential for enveloping bitterness--an argument between spouses, friends, or co-workers where hurtful words are exchanged; an illness which takes over and consumes not only the patient but family and friends as well; a bitter end to a relationship where the children become the pawns, the victims; the death of a partner, a best friend; witnessing the self-destruction of a child; ad infinitum as well.
This kind of injury is not so readily healed as the physical. Cell regeneration is not applicable. Bandages, splints, stitches, and antibiotics are ineffective. My personal confirmation, however, is that restoration is possible, the pain lessening as healing takes place.
And make no mistake--all healing, whether physical or emotional, is of God. The One who is the giver of life heals as well.
It is told that Christ appeared to his disciples after his crucifixion, death, and resurrection. Filled with questions and doubts, he was not readily received. "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe," he told a doubting Thomas. Having done that, noting the place where the sword had been thrust into his side and his palms had been nailed to the cross, Thomas' response was, "My Lord and my God." *
Why does Christ still carry those scars? Why didn't his body become "perfect" upon resurrection? These are questions for which I have no answer.
The experience of injury is one which is common to mankind. It is said that time heals all wounds, and for many it does. For others, however, healing is elusive, ever just out of reach. May each of you know healing at the hand of God--in both the inner and the outer. And may you "own" your scars with pride, having completed the process, the scar a period on the sentence. The scars on Christ's body certainly are that, as he spoke from the cross: "It is finished." *1
"O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me." Psalm 30:2
* John 20:27, *1 John 19:30
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