scars...

I have plenty of them.  They are interesting things to me.  Constant reminders of some distant pain.  Working in a kitchen for 3 years gave me plenty of scars from being burned.  Then there's the one on the end of my thumb where I slipped chopping onions and took the very very tip of my finger off.  There's this odd scar on my leg that I've had as long as I can remember and I have no idea how I got it.  And the one on my arm from playing with the dog when I was a kid and her paw came down and swatted my arm, hard apparently.  Faint and faded, but they all carry some story with them of some injury in my life.  

Lots of people have scars and they all tell you something.  Here in Ghana it's very common for people to have scars, especially on their face, that are sort of tribal markings.  Some of those scars were also thought to protect particularly beautiful children from juju.   I noticed a scar on someone's shoulder and I asked him how he got it.  He said when he was a kid he didn't do something that his aunty told him to do and she took the knife she was using to turn something that was roasting on the fire and she sort of pressed it against his shoulder, burning him.  Both of my friends named Esther have scars on their faces, one from tribal markings, the other  from some medical procedure she had as a child.  

Another thing I find interesting about scars is how different people look at them.  When I first came to Ghana, seeing scars on so many people's faces was really shocking to me.  I had a hard time not staring at the scars, wondering how they got them, how old they were when they got them etc.  But now I hardly notice them.  I've gotten used to seeing them.  My friends that have scars, I'm not even sure if I could tell you who has scars and who doesn't because I've stopped seeing them.  In America,most people, ladies especially, are so afraid of getting scars on their faces because we (Americans) think it makes a person less beautiful.  But Esther and Esther are both beautiful ladies.  Many beautiful ladies and handsome men in Ghana have scars on their faces, it doesn't make them any less beautiful.  

I've realized in the last few years that God has given us this physical world in order to demonstrate spiritual things to us in a way that is easier for us to understand.  I have a lot more invisible scars than visible ones.  I have so many emotional scars....Years of being picked on and made fun of at school really cut me up, so to speak.  Years of having a father that wasn't as kind and gentle and loving as a father is supposed to be....more scars.  Some of my scars were even self-inflicted, because I started believing the lies people told me about myself when they made fun of me...so I joined in with their attacks telling myself how worthless, ugly and stupid I was.  Self-inflicted wounds.  The invisible scars take a lot longer to heal than the visible ones.  There's no bandage or ointment to help them heal faster.  But eventually they start to heal and fade away too.  

Thinking about this, and this being resurrection weekend made me wonder; What did/do Jesus' scars look like.  What do the scars in His hands and feet and side and on His back really look like? Or what about the scars He has from working with His father Joseph, doing carpentry?  If I asked Jesus how He got one of His scars what would He tell me?  Would he show me the ones in His hands and say "well, you gave me these..." Constant reminders....but HIS scars are not constant reminders of pain like mine;  HIS are reminders of HIS love....for me and you and all of mankind.