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 23rd, 2022
the VESSEL He Chooses
We are really hard on others. What’s more, we are really hard on ourselves.
Every step she trudged drew her closer to her destination. The sun was high and too hot in the sky, heatwaves rising up from hard-packed sand, pressed by time and life and imprints of the people. Her bracelets clinked on the water urns held fast in her hands. She already dreaded the walkabout to the village on her return, as the same urns would be hefty with sloshing water, the sun beating even hotter and higher in the sky. She considered the noonday, the swelter almost impassable and unmanageable, but much more pleasant and probable than the stares of the villagers, the whispers of curious men and snide women. Like dirt against her sandals, hard-pressed were her emotions, packed down by time and life and imprints of unkind words, scoffs, murmurs. That’s why she came in the heat of the day, when no one else would be around, avoidance and isolation salve for her scarred spirit.
“Draw Me a drink.” Startled, she almost dropped the water jugs, so lost in her aloneness and reverie was she. A man sat at the edge of the very destination she had been heading toward, but she hadn’t noticed with her head buried in her chest and in her thoughts. It was inappropriate for this man to be talking to her—she being a woman, a Samaritan woman at that! But she was drawn to His directness, and it wasn’t long before she found herself immersed in a conversation with Him, her trek for water temporarily forgotten. He was fishing for something—what she could not know—but she was an empty vessel, filled with holes she dare not tell anyone, not that anyone would care after all. The depth of her sadness and her striving was deeper than even the ancient well of Jacob. Without saying a word, His penetrating stare reminded her of that.
It wasn’t long before the enigma of this man turned her inside out. He was calling to the deep within her and drawing it out of her, like lowering an urn into the well and scooping up what was inside. She ached from what He exposed, curious by what He knew, humbled over how He saw her, touched by the way He cared. That ‘AHA’ moment, the one that changes your life forever with one word, one sentence she never wanted to end. Yet, she had to tell everyone! Everyone deserved to know what grace she was being shown, what truth she was being told, what love she was learning. If she could lead even just one to where He taught, to avoid her life-lessons, it would be worth it.
It caused her to realize, as she turned herself toward the intensity of His gaze, she had been far harder on herself than anyone else had ever been toward her. Oh, they had been unkind, judging her lack of scruples without ever asking why. But she had shut herself off from everyone, never once looking back or wavering in the walls she built around herself, covering her shame, an attempt to absolve her guilt. No one had walked in her sandals or been on her path, true, nor had she allowed anyone to journey with her, each failed relationship joining that of the previous failure.
She thought, you can be beautiful but broken, brilliant but barren, whole but hollow, and no one, including yourself may question why. Until He looks inside and sees the fractured places and offers to heal them, you’ll keep running, she surmised. Today is the day I officially stop running and hiding, she murmured to herself as she ran toward the village, her water vessels abandoned and forgotten. She called out, ‘Come! Come here! Let me tell you about a Man Who told me everything I’ve ever done! Could He be the Christ?! Come, see, for yourselves!’ (story and excerpts, John 4:6-30)
Psalm 18:19, ‘He stood me 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.”’
