One of my new favorite songs is “Scars” by I Am They. The lyrics are powerful for any Christian, no matter how long they’ve been on this faith journey. If you haven’t listened to it yet, I highly recommend you do.
The song got me to thinking. While I may not have physical scars a bystander can see, I do have emotional scars. There have been things in my life that have affected me, altered who I am, and hurt in the moment. But those scars made me who I am today. Not just as a person, but as a Christian. Those events shaped me in so many ways. They remind me where I’ve been.
Now, there are times I don’t WANT to remember. But whenever I think about where God has brought me from, it makes me more thankful for His grace, His sovereignty, and His mercy. And that gratitude helps me face my current circumstances with a faith I didn’t have before.
Because those scars also strengthened my faith. I think often, “If God could get me through that, He can get me through anything.”
And then there’s Jesus’ scars. The wounds on His hands that formed when the soldiers drove in the nails. The nails that hung Him to the cross where He made the ultimate sacrifice. Jesus was perfect, and yet He was wounded for us. Isaiah 53:5 says, But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. His scars were the price for our freedom, the price of our sin.
Those scars represent His love. Our scars represent His faithfulness.
So while the idea of being thankful for scars may seem crazy at first, I have been fully swayed. As the song says, they show us who God truly is. Who He is in the bad times and the good times. And He is always loving and always faithful. That in itself is something to be thankful for.
For more on unexpected things to be thankful for, check out my post Thankful for Temptation?
