The incident had completely slipped my mind, until I saw it again this week: the scar I bear that testifies to how I once foolishly overrode the safety feature of the hedge trimmer I was using – a decision that meant that when, just a few minutes later, I momentarily lost control of the machine, its very sharp and alarmingly still-vibrating blades became rather too familiar with my own all-too-fragile flesh.
Fortunately for me, the scar isn’t in any way unsightly, and nor is it all that obvious to others. Positioned as it is near the top of my left leg, it remains firmly out of sight of all but the most prying of eyes.
Even so, it remains.
And this week its presence prompted me to think about the scars we sometimes inflict on others – be they physical, emotional, or psychological – as a result of our frequently foolish actions and often hurtful words. For these behaviours are far harder to forget, given how ugly and difficult to conceal the scars that they leave sometimes are.
There is of course forgiveness, that beautifully gracious response that some who have been treated badly are able to give. It’s something that is both wonderfully freeing for those who receive it, and absolutely necessary to avoid the retaliation which, though perhaps understandable, only serves to increase the hurt, and the number of people wounded.
And yet it is not enough because, whilst I am deeply grateful for the forgiveness I myself have been granted by those I have been unloving to, I nonetheless recognise that my sinful actions still have consequences even after they have been forgiven – consequences that, no matter how hard I try, I can never fully put right.
And so my hope for those that I’ve treated poorly is the same as the one that comforts me knowing how I’ve hurt them – the resurrection bodies that we are promised in the life to come. For then, not only will sadness and death be a thing of the past, so too will our ongoing sinfulness and the consequences thereof.
For those resurrection bodies will be without blemish – by which I mean they will be both perfectly sinless and without the scars – physical, emotional, or psychological – that this life has inflicted on them.
For then we will be fully healed.
But, it seems, not all scars are the same – because whilst ours will be removed, Jesus’ will remain. Why is that? Why did Jesus’ resurrection body still bear the marks of his crucifixion when he appeared to the disciples after he was raised back to life?
Surely the answer is because those scars, far more than a sign of the sin of those who inflicted them, are a sign of the sacrifice he made to atone for them – a manifestation of the immense love that Jesus has for those he came to save.
And because there is nothing ugly about love, they should never be concealed nor ever be forgotten.
Related posts:
To read ‘What becomes of the broken hearted? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing on Palm Sunday’, click here
To read ‘Why do bad things happen to good people? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing on Good Friday’, click here
To read ‘Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things? Rejoicing, though temporarily sorrowful, on Easter Day’, click here.
To read ‘Ascension Day’, click here.
To read ‘Speaking in Tongues’, click here.
Some musings 