Scars are Signs of Victory!!!!

When my son was young, he almost always drew characters with scars across their faces. Pirates, army men, secret agents, what ever he drew there was a scar somewhere. They amazed him, partly because in his imagination, they had been dealt a catastrophic blow in an accident or fight and they survived, stronger and more fortified inspite of it.

Everyone gets wounded at some point in time - physically, emotionally.

We all get scrapes and bruises, but after a week or small surface wounds are gone. We carry on forgetting they were ever there, no record of the insignificant injury, and it doesn't hinder us in any way from doing the same thing again.

Yet, deep wounds are different. They can take considerable time to heal and mend.

The wound itself is evident for some time, it is tender to the touch. We cringe and cry talking about it, we overcompensate for its damage in other areas, because it is still injured and it still hurts physically, emotionally or both.

But that's while it is still not fully healed...Scars on the other hand are evidence that a wound once so castrophic has been healed! It is a victory mark! A sign that the wound that may have so crippled us at one time was treated and dealt with appropriately, it was cared for properly and not neglected, suppressed or left to fester and get infected.

Jesus has scars. They signify a great healing, a great victory, a great strength received in order to conquer. When we are wounded, God's desire is to eventually produce scars, scars that can be seen by others that show that there is life, hope, healing, strength and victory beyond the wounding. Christ's scars were used for that very purpose when Thomas didn't believe that Jesus had risen. He wanted to see the evidence. (John 20:27) Jesus charged him to put his hand in his side to feel, investigate and touch the scar. Why? because a scar though evidence of a previous wound, doesnot cause pain upon touching it, discussing it, revisiting it.

If we are willing to allow the Lord to heal us, to properly and thouroughly deal with our deep wounds, we gain strength. As we are healed, the evidence will be seen by others. It will be a strength that we have gained in learning how to make right decisions, healthy decisions, faithfilled decisions. Those strengths can then be shared with others and bring comfort to them by the same comfort we have received from the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 1:4)

It is from that place of wholeness, not illness that we want to be able to make choices, because they will be blessed by God.

Check out the website www.GraciousVine.com or www.JoannaFruhauf.com