WOUNDS OF REMEMBRANCE....SCARS OF REFLECTION

WOUNDS OF REMEMBRANCE....

TO

SCARS OF REFLECTION?

Painful memories I have of the physical wounds inflicted on my body over the past thirty years of my life. I remember burning my arm while learning to iron for the first time.(I was trying to wactch Monday night football) Those don't mix too well. Of course I learned the hard way. I can remember knocking my front two teeth out after colliding with the coffee table. It was not pleasant. Then there is the time I slammed my thumb in the car door. That happened several times during my childhood. There is also the scar on my left hand I recieved while repelling from the rafters in the pavillion at camp. I was supposed to be Bible Man swinging down to save the day. I never made it to being Bible Man since I was wounded during practice. I ended up recieving eighteen stitches that night. Could not use my left hand for almost three months.

All the wounds I mentioned above, I did those myself while doing crazy and sometimes fun things. Those experiences have left scars that I can see every time I look in the mirror. I can never go back and change those experiences. I cannot remove the scars that are left. The most personal physical scars I have are located near my waist. They remind me of God's miraculous healing. When I was born, my kidneys and bladder were not functional. I was not supposed to make it pass age three. I had two major surgeries before I turned two. Every time I see those scars I wonder "What If". The first seventeen years of my life were spent in and out of the hospitals for checkups beyond count. Today, I am very healthy. You would never know of the pain and sickness unless you knew the scars like I do on me.

We can ponder all day on the physical scars that we have racked up over time. But the wounds and scars that hurt us the most at times is the emotional ones. Maybe you have lost a loved one. Maybe you have experienced heartache in a relationship. Maybe you were abused, or you have experienced so much lost you are fragile beyond imagination. Maybe you hold on to guilt or anger for the wounds you experienced in your life that you had no control over. Maybe you made some wrong decisions in your life. The guilt from the past is keeping you from living in the present. As a Christian, maybe the wounds have healed, but the scars keep you from moving on.

The pain from wounds we have experienced does pass away, but the memory stays. The scars that remain are left to remind us of: where we have come, what we have experienced, what we should do differently, we are not perfect, choices do have consequences, things to warn others of, things do happen that we cannot sometimes control, etc... We can respond to the wounds and scars that we have with anger, bitterness, guilt, lack of forgiveness, depression, but in doing so we will never move forward.

I confess that I have not always reponded the right way when I have experienced wounds that have cut me to the deepest part of my being. There are scars that you and I carry with us everyday that others cannot see. We carry them in the most secret place of our memories. When I begin to place too much focus on MY wounds and MY scars and MYself.......I am reminded of the wounds and scars my Savior took for me as He was crucified for me. There is no experience, no wound, no scar, that I will ever have to endure alone. God is always near. God knows what I feel. We cannot get so caught up in the past that we forget to live in the present. God is faithful! We have someting far more greater to look forward to. The things here we endure are only temporal compared to what we have to look forward to in eternity.

Revelations 21:4 says, "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

Today, may you move forward focusing on what God is doing for you, what He has done for you, and what He can do for you today. Press on no matter what you may be experiencing today. With God nothing shall be impossible....Luke 1:37