Scars. 

We all have them. Visible and invisible. 

A few days ago, I decided to count the number of visible scars I have and I counted four of them. 

I already shared the story of how one of the scars became a part of my body. I got it at birth when the doctor tried to cut my mother open to bring me out. He missed it and somehow, the knife – or was it a blade – cut through my head. As tiny and fragile as I was, I survived that ordeal but it left a mark on the left side of my head. 

I have another scar at the corner of my right eye. I wasn’t born with it. I got it when I was about 4 or 5 years old. I was involved in a little fight. Our neighbour’s son had come over for a play date. You know how it is with kids – best of friends now; enemies in a few seconds. That was what happened between this boy and I. I had a pencil in my hand. He wanted the it. I refused. He tired to snatch it out of my hand. I held on to it tightly and lifted my hand so that he won’t reach it. He tried and as we struggled, the pencil came close to my right eye and the sharpened tip tore off some skin around my eye. I didn’t go blind but it left a permanent tiny mark at the corner of my right eye. 

The third scar happened when I worked as a sales girl in a fast-food restaurant. I had walked into the kitchen to grab a tray of meat-pies as we had run out at the counter. I should have waited for the chef to bring it out by himself, as instructed by our manager, but customers were waiting so I decided to get it without his help. The tray was hot and as I tried to grab it, I felt that sharp, painful burn on my left arm from the edge of the hot tray. I screamed for help!  I didn’t lose the arm but I have a scar to show for it. 

The fourth scar is underneath my lower abdomen. I call it my 4-in-1 scar.  I have had four C-sections and all have been done on that same spot. The first one was traumatic but when I realized that this might just be the way out for me as far as child-bearing is concerned, I braced up for subsequent births. With each surgery, the recovery process was different. Thankfully, I survived each one but the scar remains. 

Scars. 

Almost every human being on earth has one. These scars are not the outcome of pleasant experiences; rather, they are reminders of the physical pain and hurt that we have encountered, and just as we have these physical scars, we also have emotional scars. While some of these emotional scars are the results of our carelessness, other are there because life happened to us. 

There are days when we want the world to see the scars so that they can understand why we are the way we are but, hard as we try, they cannot see…or they refuse to see.

There are also days when we want to hide the scars from the world so that they don’t see us for who we really are but, hard as we try, they are still able to see. 

Emotional scars. 

They have become our pain-reminders. 

Our hurt-recallers. 

We don’t see them but we can feel them. 

We feel them in our thoughts. 

We feel then whenever that individual’s name is mentioned.

We feel them when a familiar event repeats itself in the life of someone we know. 

As I counted and examined these four scars on my body, I was reminded of the pain that came with each one – 

but then, I was also reminded of the power of God’s strength, love, protection and healing. 

A sliced head, a pierced eye, a burnt arm, an incised abdomen; yet I survived. 

The wounds were physically painful but God saw me through the pain, he watched over me and he healed me. 

Dear friend, it is the same with emotional scars. 

Despite all that you have been through, you came out strong. 

You were broken but you survived. 

Life pushed, pulled and shoved but you did not fall. 

You may have played a part in inflicting that wound that brought the scar on you but you fought the guilt, forgave yourself and moved on. 

After all that was said and done, you are still standing! 

That is enough for you to celebrate!

The scars may remind you of the pain but let them also remind you that you are strong, resilient, bold and victorious. Let them remind you of how far you have come. Above all, let them remind you of the depth of God’s love for you and let that love birth humility in you. 

Do not be ashamed of your scars. Celebrate them! They are beautiful!