My dad was in the army, in WWII, was injured by shrapnel in a battle that killed the other men in his foxhole, and received a purple heart. For the rest of his life, he had the scars from that injury. One thing I remember about him is that he couldn’t shut one of his eyes. He would fall asleep in his chair, and his one eye would always be open. My brother used to joke that he was always watching us. The other thing I remember is that the one side of his cheek would always “sweat” when he ate. It would literally run with sweat, but he later had surgery to correct that problem.  I realize my father could have been killed in that foxhole, like his buddies, and neither my brother's or I would be here...

I am sure these were not the only injuries my dad suffered. I can’t imagine the horrors he must have witnessed that are common scenes of war. He would never talk about his time in the army, and I never found out what it was truly like, except that it was bad.

How many scars are you carrying from injuries in the past? Whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, we all have scars. But scars are what results from healing. Sometimes those wounds can open again, especially if they didn’t heal in the proper way the first time around. Like my dad’s cheek that would sweat when he ate, or the eye that would never close, sometimes we have residual effects leftover from the injuries we have received.

What happens when your heart gets broken? When someone hurts you, doing something beyond forgivable? How do you recover? How do you go on? How can you ever trust that person again? I know of no way to do it by myself, only with God’s help. I hope and pray that the scars heal properly, but something can always happen to open them up again. My trust in someone can always be crushed again and again, but somehow we have to keep getting back up and going forward. How anyone can do this without the help of the Lord is beyond me. Yet He is our example, and He is our strength. We should strive to live like Him, and ask Him to provide us with what we need to keep moving forward when we are hurt.

Those scars can be a good thing though…they can be reminders of things we have done and don't want to do again, and we can use those scars to make sure that we don’t end up in the same place we were. Scars are also on Jesus, to remind us of what He did for us. My scars seem to pale in comparison to what He went through for me.

There is a song on the new Point of Grace Album "How You Live", called "Heal the Wound"...I wanted to share a small portion of it:

I used to pray that you would take this shame away
hide all the evidence of who I've been
but it's the memory of
the place you brought me from
that keeps me on my knees
and even though I'm free

Heal the wound but leave the scar
A reminder of how merciful you are
I am broken, torn apart,
Take the pieces of this heart
Heal the wound but leave the scar...

Yes, Lord, leave the scars there…to remind me of what I have been and what I don’t want to be again; of what you have done so I don’t have to be in that place again, where sin took hold of me and inflicted its scars on my soul. Help me to live in the healing balm of your love.