Scars, Not Wounds: The Mark of a Christian

I recently listened to a video that said, not verbatim, that you cannot be a Christian without scars. This really stuck with me. I am not even lying when I say that I spent a whole weekend thinking about that statement. One night, I woke up between 4 am and 5 am just thinking about this statement. And that’s when I got a powerful revelation.

I have a friend who recently gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, and I couldn’t be happier for her. Let’s call her Pamela. I visited Pamela in the hospital to check in on her and the baby. One thing about Pamela, she hates hospitals. Every minute in that hospital felt agonizing, and all Pamela longed for was to hear the doctor say that she could finally go home.

Due to the nature of a cesarean birth, extra caution had to be taken. The Doctors finally discharged Pamela from hospital with strict instructions on what she could do and not do so her wounds would heal well. She couldn’t shower at some point or even lift anything heavy, even her own baby. This is because without proper care, she risked reopening the wounds, developing an infection, or experiencing internal bleeding.

What point am I trying to drive home?

When wounds are left without properly healing, they don’t stay hidden, they get worse. 

This is how many people are walking around today with unhealed wounds in their hearts. 

An unhealed wound often looks very subtle and gives you the illusion that all is well on the outside. Until one day everything erupts and all hell breaks loose due to a triggering memory, words or someone’s actions.

It is important to remember that as we go through the journey of life, pain is inevitable and people will hurt us. But when those wounds don’t heal, they become infected or begin to bleed out in ways we don’t even recognize. Internally, externally, or both.

Unfortunately, we live in a broken world, and a lot of that brokenness comes from unhealed people. This shows in how people don’t trust each other and selfishness at its pinnacle. Friendships are often so shallow, while loneliness and suicide are at an all-time high. This is all because we are carry wounds, A.K.A burdens we were never meant to carry.

We really can’t fix the world, only Jesus can, but we can make the world a better place by making sure healing starts at an individual level.

You Cannot Be a Christian Without Scars

A wonderful quote I came across recently says every time you remember, forgive.

Here’s the thing, a scar tells a story, not of pain, but of healing.

Healing begins when we choose to forgive others. Many times I hear the saying “I could never forgive what they did to me.” What we don’t realize is that even though forgiveness may be hard, it is the first step to healing. Forgiveness isn’t giving the other person a get-out-of-jail-free card. Forgiveness gives you the chance to live in freedom and live in wholeness. 

You may ask where do I even begin? Very simple, tell God how you feel about the whole situation. Tell Him how you feel it was unfair, and ask him to heal every wound.

I don’t know what may be hurting you at the moment, or what wound is masquerading as healed but still bleeds every once in a while. We have an open invitation from Jesus today in Matthew 11:28 where He tells us “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

Isaiah 53:5 also reminds us that by Jesus stripes we are healed. This healing is not only physical healing but also emotional and spiritual healing.

From Wounds to Scars

The goal is to have scars and not wounds. As wounds heal, they leave scars as reminders of the battles you fought, and how you came out stronger on the other side. Scars have a way of grounding us by making us kinder, having more empathy, and compassion for others.

This is a journey that I am taking myself…so join me, and let’s all be better versions of ourselves, aiming for scars, not wounds.

As always, thank you so much for making it this far. Can I ask you for a favor? If this message spoke to you, please share it with someone who needs to read it. If you feel led, leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you and will make sure to respond.

Till next time, and God bless you.