Scars

PREFACE: When we are discouraged, we are reminded in 2 Corinthians 4 by Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles that we are not alone and we have a mission, a purpose. I especially like the close of this chapter: “For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.” Here I try to grapple with some of the painful, ugly things of life.

I have a beautiful wood carving in my living room. She is an exquisite nude lady 😲, Bohemia is her name. Carved by artist Crystal Lockwood, lithe and lovely in form and color, she is resplendent with flaws that cover the entire surface of her body. It is these flaws, scars if you will, which attracted me to her and partially inspired this essay. The second inspiration is the worship song, The Only Scars in Heaven by Casting Crowns. As I thought about the linkage between sculpture and song, I am reminded of several recent discussions with friends and family.

Only the Unscarred Are New

I can’t tally completely the number of people I know who are or have been in recovery or damaged in some way. Sexual, physical, emotional abuse. Violence. Infirmity. Abandonment. Rejection. Addiction. Tragedy. Loss. Incarceration. Decrepitude. Spiritual oppression. In short, this long list includes everything that is wrong with our world, its flaws, the things that make our Creator weep. I will wager we all know people covered with scars. If we are honest, that includes ourselves.

A popular book four decades ago was, When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Rabbi Harold Kushner. My paraphrase, not to trivialize the book, is why are we covered with so many scars? Why does our loving Father God allow us to be defaced, disfigured, distorted and therein discouraged and destroyed? I am not seeking a glib answer to this profound question of why evil exists in the Creation of a good God in the first place. I am trying to understand the phenomenon of the scars we carry with us and their place in our spiritual journeys.

Let’s start with a perfect world where we are all undamaged. None have scars. We don’t even have a word for them. In fact, we are so perfect, we all run around naked as jaybirds; even our distant ancestors are still looking mighty fine. If we only had a world like that, bodies like that, a community like that, we would not have to live with the scars of tragedy and decay.

Well, we did.

Have that, I mean.

It was called Eden.

I am not completely capable of understanding why the stage was set as it was in Eden. I am not even sure if it is to be taken literally or as metaphor. I suspect the latter, but either works, and it answers the question, what if we had no pain? No scars?

We’d cause them ourselves.

This is the danger of true freedom: We can choose unwisely.

I suspect there was a lot going on around the Eden drama. In addition to the two protagonists, naive and naked with only ONE rule to follow, there was the Serpent. There were others: Maybe there were angels, heavenly creatures watching the drama unfold. There may have been other people, too, not just Adam and Eve 😲 Read Genesis 4 and see if you agree with me. After Cain killed Abel, of whom was he afraid? God certainly, but also other people. This is part of the evidence that makes me think metaphor. But I digress.

Scars tell the stories of our lives. Physical, mental, or spiritual, they influence, shape our personalities, our outlook and attitudes, our shame and embarrassment, our agony. Why do we feel naked and vulnerable when our scars are revealed? The worst scars are often in the secret places, where we want no one to see, those that are the source of our shame in our nakedness. And the evil of shame is that secret, niggling, horrible thought that somehow I participated, helped to cause, deserved the scars that were left behind. This is a lie!

When Jesus, God Himself in the form of the Son of God, died on the cross of justification, He removed the basis of separation between God and us, our Creator and His creatures. He removed the condemnation, rightly deserved, if we would only accept salvation by faith as the free gift of God’s grace. Still we have freedom to reject it; wasn’t freedom the original problem? Freedom, responsibility; this axiom has never gone away. Because of freedom, we wouldn’t, couldn’t even keep ONE simple rule, one tenet of law, in Eden, the perfect place. So God gave us the law of Moses, the Decalogue, as our schoolmaster to underline our dilemma.

God led us, yes us, out of Egypt as a cloud by day and fire by night, with great miracles, He defeated Pharaoh’s army, He fed us and gave us water. We complained. We built the gold calf and worshiped it, not the God of our deliverance. We cried out to Him when our enemies surrounded us and God vanquished them before us and yet we worshiped idols made of gold and wood and sacrificed our children in the high places. Time after time, we rebelled, we were disciplined, we repented. Dispersed among the nations, Israel (we) failed to comprehend God’s patience, His mercy. And so it went. For centuries. There was something wrong with us.

So pervasive is Sin, as free creatures we could never reconcile with God. We could not, we will not meet the responsibility that our freedom demands. We are a stiff necked people. Only God Himself could intervene to answer Lucifer’s taunt, “Of course you can make anything, anyone, bow down and worship you. You are the all powerful, Almighty God and you can do whatever you want to do!” Satan, Lucifer, the Serpent, would reduce the King of Glory to the level of an earthly tyrant. Ultimate blasphemy! It reminds me of Jesus’ final temptation in Matthew 4:9. If he was to succeed in his rebellion, it was critical for Satan to undermine that which he knew to be God’s plan. And he failed!

But Lucifer has not given up. Even though he knows how the story ends. Even though he cannot win, he can try to deface the very image of God in the souls of men. These are your scars. These are those which attempt to make us something less than human, something distorted, something not worth saving. The insidiously clever, persistent Devil would make us into something so ugly, so repulsive, that it would force God to look away, abandon His eternal plan. BUT THIS SHALL NOT BE! That is, if we are claimed by Christ Jesus.

So, why are there scars on those who are called by the name of Jesus? Why does God allow them?

These scars we bear, are medals of valor, if we can turn to Him, our Deliverer (Savior), our only hope. In the same way I appreciate my lovely Bohemia carving, the Lord views these scars as beautiful reminders of the wars we have fought, the battles won and lost for His Glory! Think of it! That which you find ugly, embarrassing, disgusting, and shameful, God sees them through the blood of His Son as holy reminders of His grace. It is worth saying again: It is not that He does not see your scars, but that they are the evidence of battles fought, the basis for, “Well done, good and faithful servant! Now, enter into your rest!”

But, we are not there yet. The battles are not over. We are in the midst of a great war. How can we execute our assignments, our orders, our present responsibility if our freedom, constantly and consistently exploited and undermined by Satan, heads us in the wrong direction as it did in Eden? Contemplate this question for a moment. How can free creatures, tainted by sin, rescued or not by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, ever hope to actually please the righteous God Almighty, Creator, Maker of heaven and earth?

Wait for it.

Wait for it.

Wait for it as the disciples waited in Jerusalem at Pentecost.

God’s genius: His Spirit. His Spirit! Poured out on all who believe. What is to be our response? What must our response be? Out of gratitude for His grace, we seek to listen to His Spirit, we seek to obey the truth He whispers to us in the wee hours of morning, we seek to glorify God our Father in our good works prepared by Him beforehand! This is grace my friend. This is grace!

Only covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, empowered by His Holy Spirit, clothed in the full armor of God, can we ever hope to join the battle, the great war to redeem all of Creation, God the Father’s Creation, which awaits with urgent longing the revealing of the sons of God. That is us, my friends!

Around the throne of Heaven, in the shade of the Tree of Life, we will share our scars willingly, even with holy pride! Our medals will be worn for all to see and hear our stories. “In this one, I fought lust; I nearly died. In this, I fought pornography, that one there addiction. Here, I overcame sexual abuse, there violence, anger. This one is special for when my sister died; see, she’s listening now, just over there! Hi, Sis! Oh, this one, my brother was martyred. He’s here, too! I’ll tell you; I was there in the Battle for Holiness, God be praised! I was in the thick of it, minor role though it may have been, but I was in the fight! Worthy is the Lamb! Worthy is God the Father. Worthy is God the Father!” Medals of valor. Reminders of God’s grace. And the only real scars we’ll see in Heaven, will be those born by Jesus.

Lord Jesus, remind us we are more than conquerors… we are to be over-comers. We join the battle, our eyes fixed upon you, our hearts and minds aligned with your Holy Spirit, and we fight for the Glory of God and the redemption of His Creation. We will strive to give the enemy no quarter and to declare that we will not rest until we worship at the foot of the throne of God our Father. Amen.