Your Scars Can Disappear

Trusting the miracle of invisible mending to let His grace gently fade the past.

Yesterday, I was getting ready for work, and I suddenly remembered a scar I had gotten when I was around 5 years old. This is almost 4 decades ago, so I had to stop and try to remember what happened. My Mom had just finished ironing, unplugged the iron (an important detail), left it on the ironing board, and stepped out of the room for just a second.

Now, me being a curious child, I thought, I want to be a grown-up too! What does it feel like to iron? I grabbed a handkerchief (yes, I was born in the 1900s) and thought I could pretend to iron it.

So I went over, and I remember grabbing the iron to start ironing, and I don’t know what happened, perhaps it was too heavy for my hand, but it ended up catching on my skin right around my abdomen. I must have screamed because my Mom came running back into the room and attended to me. She seemed worried, but I didn’t understand the danger. I thought it was off. She explained that even if it’s off, it’s still hot and needs to cool! To this day, I make sure to put irons that are cooling far out of reach. She taught me an important lesson that day.

The scar left behind was a straight line about half an inch long. It has been with me most of my life. Until this week, when I finally thought about it and looked and realized there was no trace of it. It had completely healed and disappeared. What was even more astonishing to me is that I hadn’t noticed and couldn’t pinpoint the time when it happened. Was it in college? When was the last time I saw it? I stood shocked and amazed.

I didn’t know scars could do that. Naturally, the Lord took this as a teaching moment and said to me, “Some scars heal, and some scars disappear.”

I immediately thought about Jesus’ resurrected body and how he still had the nail-scarred hands of the Cross:

Now Thomas (also known as Didymus^[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

John 20:24-27 NIV

I once heard it said that Jesus is the only one with scars in heaven. An eternal reminder of his sacrifice. On this side of eternity, scars are battle wounds, reminders of not only what we’ve healed from but how we’ve healed. And like me, that healing can happen without us even knowing, and include the very scars vanishing. Now that is another level of healing.

Whatever caused you great pain, turned into a wound, then a scab, then a scar, and can one day be completely gone, without a trace or hint that it was ever there. This isn’t true for every scar, but it is true for some. And this points to the victory we have in Jesus. The complete healing that we get to look forward to in heaven.

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for being our healer.
Thank you for the scars that
show how you delivered us.
Thank you that one day
We will be completely healed.

Amen.