Look at What I Did!

I am clumsy. I thought I had been getting better about it until recently. I went to talk with someone outside, and forgot about a sewer block, tripped over it, and scraped myself up pretty well. (Thank you flip flops!) Yep- it hurt. In several places. And the recovery process was ugly. There was seepage involved. Let’s just leave it at that. Pretty sure I will have a scar of some kind.

I showed my family and said- “Look what I did to myself.” They all gave me their condolences, because some of them have my same DNA, and know the feeling. But after a few days, when I mentioned it was throbbing and told them again how I fell, they said “Mom, we know. You told us.” After the third time I wasn’t met with sympathy as much as borderline annoyance. 

As the wounded party, I was front row and centre to the whole healing process. I was the one who felt it when a shoe brushed against it, or I sat the wrong way and the scab pulled, or the bandaids stuck to it, or it was itchy as it dried out. But the others didn’t experience all that, so when I talked about it, they didn’t understand. They didn’t feel what I felt. 

But even with all the discomfort, it was healing! I even left it alone and didn’t pick at the scabs. Much.

The same can be said for emotional wounds we go through. No one else feels what we feel, and though it can be therapeutic to talk through the healing process, other people can get annoyed; especially if it’s something fresh we’re dealing with that, to them, seems like it’s not a big deal. 

But the awesome thing is, God never gets tired of hearing from us! We can pour out our burdens, talk about our itchy scabs, and relate anything to Him. And He will give us comfort. And tell us what to do to aid the healing process. (He will most likely tell us not to pick at the scabs or it will never heal.)

So eventually we can go from focusing on our wounds and saying “Look what I did to myself”, or “Look what so and so did to me”, and instead show the scars of our healed places and say “Look what God did!!” 

There’s nothing wrong with having scars. They can be a sign of a great story of healing in our lives, and become a beautiful testimony of the work of the Lord, so He may be glorified. 

Isaiah 61:3 “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.”