Remember the Papa Roach song from 2005 “Scars”? I love that song! A line from that song reads: “And my scars remind me that the past is real”. This summer at the beach, a friend and I were up late one night sharing our testimonies of what The Lord has brought us through and the battle scars that have changed our lives. She shared with me a simple analogy about scars that has impacted my life ever since.
In this world, scars are ugly. We do whatever it takes to hide them, cover them up, and disguise them. I’m pretty sure you can get them lasered off too-I mean, they laser everything else, right? Scars can be reminders of painful times, imperfection and things that cause us shame; they also show where healing took place. We all have scars on our hearts. The enemy likes to remind us of those scars and he likes to try and convince us that they are still gaping wounds that can never be healed. When we seek The Lord, he heals our wounds. We can be certain of that because His Word says so: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds”. Psalm 147:3. I’ve always taken that to apply to those who are brokenhearted over life’s uncontrollable circumstances as well as those who are brokenhearted over their sins. the Lord heals our wounds and the scar left in it’s place is a reminder that healing has taken place!
Someone contacted me several months back about the possibility of doing foster care. She began to tell her story of her desire to foster, but quickly added “I could never foster a child that has been sexually assaulted”. She went on to share her personal story of sexual assault that had taken place over 20 years ago. No one knew. She had covered it up so well that she was completely unwilling to allow The Lord to use it as a testimony and couldn’t risk anyone knowing. She was completely ashamed of her scar. What a terrible waste! No matter what we’ve been through and what we’ve done, The Creator desires to do his job and heal us of our painful wounds. He desires for our scars to be reminders of his divine healing, not something we should hide and be ashamed of. The enemy wants us to hide our scars. He alone wants us to be ashamed of where we’ve been and what we’ve done.
Scars are an opportunity. When you see a physical scar on someone’s body, you know they’ve been through something painful. The same applies to spiritual scars. Instead of covering everything up, we can show our scars and help others. I’m always excited to hear another person’s testimony. I don’t judge them because of it, on the contrary, I feel relief that there is someone I can relate to and I admire them for being brave enough to trust The Lord with their testimony.
Often the enemy uses people to hold our pasts against us, and to remind us of where we’ve been. The Bible calls Satan the accuser, so if we are pointing our finger, whose side do you think that puts us on? If you are holding someone’s past against them today, please stop lining yourself up with the enemy; nothing good can come from that. Now don’t be afraid to share your scars and know that we all have them. 🙂
amanda Dunn 