Beautiful Scars

This isn't a normal message from Facing Midian.  This message is straight to you, from my heart.  This morning I am overflowing with praise -- I hardly know why I am writing this; I just want to share with you what my sweet Lord has done for me.  

He has turned my scabs into beautiful scars.

Now, I know about scars.  I have physical scars from burns I received in an accident when I was 16 months old, injuries that required so many surgeries that my mom lost count.  I don't remember it, but the trauma from that incident has remained with me and made me unable to handle being in a children's hospital in Brazil.  Oh yes, I have scars.  But one thing I know about scars is this: scars don't still hurt. 

The worst kind of wound is the kind you carry with you every day -- a wounded heart.  My heart was wounded, and I carried that pain with me for a long, long time.  I didn't know how to get past it.  I couldn't see past it.  I couldn't feel past it.  

Today I opened my prayer journal and flipped back to the entries that mark the worst emotional pain of my life.  The pain written on those pages is blistering and intense, almost radiating up into my face as I read them.  But what I experienced when I read them today . . . was different.  

Yesterday I asked the Lord to heal my heart once and for all.  I knew I couldn't truly live until I'd been fully, completely healed.  I couldn't move forward without it.  I'd tried for months and months to "think" my way into healing and "study" my way into healing.  All that time, God was longing for me to reach the end of my rope and just ask Him.  Just ask Him.  He wanted me to ask for a miracle.  He wanted me to realize that He didn't need my help to heal.  He wanted me to realize that there was absolutely nothing I could do to get myself out of this pit.  It would have to be all Him. 

This morning, I re-read those devastating journal entries and didn't feel what I used to feel.  I didn't identify with the woundedness or wonder how I'd ever be healed from such devastation.  I felt whole again, and peaceful, and healed.  

Jesus has healed my heart.

Hallelujah!  What beautiful, beautiful scars.

"Praise God we don't have to hide scars!
"They just strengthen our wounds and they soften our hearts.
"They remind us of where we have been, but not who we are.
"So praise God, praise God!
"Oh His are covering ours,
"So Praise God we don't have to hide scars." -Jonny Diaz, "Scars"

Praise God for these beautiful scars!