From a Wound to a Scar

The healing process of going from a wound to a scar is primarily up to the one who has been wounded. Who, among the masses of those that read this, has never been injured?

Remember wiping out on your bicycle? For you guys, do you remember stumbling home with torn jeans, blood on your leg, and fighting tears in your eyes? Do you remember mom picking the pebbles out of your knee, washing the blood off, putting ointment on, then a bandage and finally sealing it with a kiss while wiping the tears away?

For you girls, do you remember being called to dinner while playing in the treehouse? You meticulously put everything in its place, then began your descent only to find you missed a rung and ended up on the ground screaming with pain. Do you remember dad gently picking you up and carrying you inside, placing you on the bathroom counter and cleaning you up? Do you remember his attempts to calm you while fixing your owies, putting the bow back in your hair and finishing up with a hug?

I remember when I was 49 getting ready to turn 50. Each day, I courageously walk the 1/16th-mile journey to get the mail and rather than calling uber to get me home, I walk the same 1/16th of a mile back. One day, after getting the mail, I lifted my foot to go from the street to the sidewalk (about two inches). Apparently, my old age hindered me from making it all the way up and down I went.

I remember thinking all the way down, which is more time to think that most have given my 6′ 7″ frame, “Is this what I have to look forward to?” I remember laying there in pain waiting for someone to help me up. When no help came, I slowly put myself in an upright position. My leather jacket was fine, but my shirt had a hole, my elbow had blood, and the pain had my attention.

I’ve been wounded. You’ve been wounded.

As the wound progresses, it may turn various colors. If skin broke as a result of the injury, a scab forms. Given time and left alone the scab will turn into a scar. Depending on the severity of the wound the scar may last a lifetime.

However, if the wound is not allowed to heal, if the scab is picked and the wound opened, healing will not take place. If the injury is not allowed to heal, it will fester, and infection will set in causing possible severe complications including severing that part of the body. If the festering wound is not on the part of the body that may be severed, eventual death can occur.

Each of us has experienced physical wounds.

Each of us has experienced emotional wounds.

The process is the same. The initial infliction of the wound is painful. The playground mantra, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” is anything but true.

Emotional wounds come in a variety of ways, but they do happen. What will you do with the injury? Will you allow healing to take place?

God is a healer of the body and soul, but there is no doubt God also uses people to administer healing both to the physical and the emotional.

If you are wounded, don’t be so spiritual that you will not allow someone to bring healing into your life. Let somebody help wipe the dirt, pebbles, blood, and tears away. Let them pour the balm of Gilead over your wounded soul. Allow them to bandage you up and give you a hug.

Sure, it’s painful. But if you don’t allow the healing process of the wound to take place, it will never become a scar. Instead, the wound will fester and putrefy. Whether this happens physically or emotionally, it stinks.

Scripture tells us when the wound is not allowed to become a scar, many are defiled.

Let the wound become a scar. Let God and His church minister to the need. Let healing take place both in the body and soul.

Scars serve a purpose. They help us remember the mercy of God at work in our lives.

Jesus has scars. I have scars. You have scars.

Be thankful for the scars.