THESE SCARS
They Still Speak
The Silent Language of Living Wounded
Wherever you are today, your limitations, your walls, your scars are before God’s eyes.
September 5th, 2022
WHO TOLD YOU?
Boy howdy, shame can really scar a person, huh? Lifelong scars that, my assumption is, many take even to their graves. The inability to stare down shame in the face and shed ourselves of the weight of its impact upon our shoulders and the heaviness in our hearts can be debilitating. And when the stench of it in our souls covers up the fragrance of Jesus’ grace, it can really affect our confidence and intentionality moving forward in our lives.
She couldn’t raise her eyes to meet mine even though we had been talking for months. I was slowly earning her trust, but it was a hard-fought battle because of all she had been through in her life; so shaky were the pillars our relationship was being built on. Every teeny smile that lit up her face was like a gift, a nugget of gold panned from a burbling mountain stream. Attempting to convince her it was someone else’s wrongdoing toward her that blemished her courage and scarred her spirit, not that of her own, seemed an impossibility. She ran like a skittish deer every time I hoped to help her step out into the sunlight. She had been in hiding since she was a little girl due to the abuse she’d been forced to endure; shame painting her world the nondescript shade of nude and nothingness.
Why would she have to pay for someone else’s sin, you ask. Isn’t that what shame does? We are responsible for our own actions and can heap guilt on our own selves, but all too often we bear the brunt of a perpetrator’s wrongdoing, leaving behind shame that stifles any hope. Shame that wounds, shame that scars.
More importantly, isn’t that what Jesus chose to do for us? In the beginning of time, we find a bountiful garden bursting with all the good things God was creating. Peace and joy permeated Eden, and the two people God designed to meet one another’s needs, as well as His desire for fellowship, emanated happiness. Suddenly, the enemy, the snake—the villain in our Love Story—slinks in on his belly, and at once, the peace, joy, happiness and unabashed atmosphere which had existed, ceased. Disobedience and sin enter the picture and our lovebirds run to hide themselves as they hear the sound of their Creator strolling through the garden in the cool of the day. Genesis 3 tells us this story and says the Lord God Who had created the man and woman calls out for them because they are hiding from Him. They step out from their hiding place, covering themselves with fig leaves, because suddenly they see themselves as they are, not as God Almighty created them, naked, unencumbered and unashamed. Immediately, He looks upon them with great bereft. “Who told you?” He demands. “Who told you, you were naked? Who told you, you weren’t worthy? Who told you, you weren’t enough? Who told you, you should be ashamed of yourself?”
When the Father created mankind, He hadn’t designed a world filled with shame; thus, Adam and Eve could wander naked and free without feeling anything at all. Sin and shame entered the picture and changed everything Holy God created, including the space of peace which now cried for a place of grace. As the curtain falls across the stage at the end of this heartbreaking Act, we find the Father sadly sewing clothing for His humans to cover their nakedness and clothe their shame (Genesis 3:21).
He is still covering us with His forgiveness and clothing us with His grace today. Because of Jesus, we can slowly shed the shame we are dressed in, and instead, adorn ourselves with a garment of purity resulting from His extravagant love toward us.
Eventually, she raised her eyes to meet mine, and the beauty that cleansed her demeanor was remarkable; a smile eating her face as she wrapped herself around the concept that she was more than enough, that she was washed clean, and what lie ahead was so much better than what lay behind. She still wears her scars today, but proudly, because she knows they tell a magnificent story of freedom and transformation.
Psalm 18:19, ‘He stood me up in a wide-open field. I stood there saved; surprised to be loved!’ (MSG)
Isaiah 49:16, ‘”Can’t you see? I have carved your name on the palms of My hands! Your walls are always my concern.”’
