Everybody has scars and every scar has a story. Some are chosen and some are not. But God never wastes a scar. God takes our pain and our scars and turns them into joy. So we rejoice when we dance with our spouse. Everybody has a scar. Every scar has a story. We are all scarred. We live in a broken world. Accidents happen. Things don’t go as planned. Sin entered and with that, people hurt other people. And some scars are caused by nothing more than living in this rough and tumble world. And some come as a result of freedom. One of the greatest gifts that God has given is free will. With that freedom comes risk. And sometimes risk wounds. That’s not as deep of a thought as it might first appear. It could be as simple as the freedom of a redneck saying, hold my beer and watch this. Which inevitably, you know what comes next? A scar. Here’s what I want you to grab and hold for later. Why scars? God thought they would be useful. See, he could have created us so we didnt have to have scars. Tongues rarely scar. He could have made our whole body that way, but he chose not to. Instead, he made bodies that create these collagen fibers that stitch the wounds back together. It doesnt quite look the same as it did before and it feels different around the skin. But its usable, serviceable, and the purpose of scars serve purposes beyond just closing a wound. Lets go there. Every scar begins with a wound. A wound deep enough to really hurt. Every scar is not physical. There are emotional wounds that often are the deepest and most painful. Scars are a metaphor representing not only physical, but mental and emotional experiences as well. Every scar begins as a wound. But some wounds are never allowed to become scars. You never allow it to heal. When my dog Kato had surgery, which he’s had several times, unfortunately they sent him home with like a cone of shame. Why? Well, he’s not smart enough to leave the wound alone. He wants to lick at it and pick at it. He wants to pull the stitches before they’re ready. And some of you might need a cone of shame because you can’t leave your wounds alone either. Have you ever been in the hospital where someone’s been strapped into the bed? They keep pulling out their iv’s. They keep trying to remove that which brings healing. There’s some of you who even pour poison into the wound. Bitter words, consuming negative thoughts, inappropriate actions that prohibit healing from ever occurring. So the wound remains open. You play with the wound, you pick at it, and you relive the pain over and over and over again. You leave the wound open and it’s susceptible to infection. And with that, it gets worse. Instead of better, wounds that are left untreated or wounds that are picked at over and over again become infected, and that infection actually ends up being much worse than the initial wound. The fact is, it can kill you. Every scar begins as a wound. How it scars depends in large part upon how it’s treated. What medical treatment was applied to the wound. Like if you clean it and disinfect it, if you stitch it up and close it, if you take antibiotics, chances are the scar won’t be so unsightly. Appropriate treatment also cuts down the time it takes for a wound to heal. So let’s stop off here. When you think through the hurtful experience in your life, is it still a wound or is it a scar? Is it still open? Or has it closed and left its mark? But it doesnt need constant tension. Your divorce, the accident, the abuse, the death of a loved one, losing your job, how about yours? Is it still open, raw, needing care? Or has it become a scar? Are there days that you don’t dwell on the pain? Understand there’s a path to this wound. Treatment scar. Don’t skip the treatment. Treatment promotes healing. Now let’s shift things here a bit. Since this is a christian study, I have to ask you some different kinds of scar questions. Like, do you think Jesus had scars as a kid? I mean, can you imagine any kid making it to twelve without a scar somewhere? Do you think he had scars from his days in the carpenter shop? Do you know any carpenter who doesn’t have at least some scars that come from that trade? I don’t know. Do you think that because he was God’s son, because he was smarter and wiser and sinless, that he never ever got hurt badly enough to scar? Let’s go here. During his ministry, when he healed people, did they scar? Take a leper who’s already lost a couple of toes. His feet are ulcered and infected. Jesus touches him and he heals him. Were those toes restored? Did the ulcers leave scars? If they came away with the scars, do you think they were disappointed or were they thankful? Would they bemoan the blemish or embrace the grace? Regardless what you think about whether he carried scars from his childhood, regardless if you believe he had scars from his years in the carpentry trade, what happens when he’s flogged and crucified? There should have been no scars. There wasn’t time for scars. Just three days. Hands, feet pierced through a spear wound in his chest cavity, his back torn by the flogging. How long does it take a wound like that to heal? Three days later. Are there wounds or scars? On the night of his resurrection, after his trip earlier that day to Emmaus, Jesus appeared to the disciples. And John specifically notes that he showed them his hands and his side, but Thomas wasn’t there. So Thomas didn’t buy it. So the other’s disciples told him, we’ve 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’m not going to believe it. A week later, his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. And though the doors were locked, Jesus came in and stood among them and said, peace be with you. And 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. Thomas said to him, my lord and my God. And then Jesus told him, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. Jesus resurrected body had the scars. So what difference does it make? It makes a huge difference. If you miss this, you miss the most important part. You see, dead men don’t scar. Take a corpse, slice it open and wait. It’s not going to scar. Sew it back together. Put all the disinfectant on it you want, it won’t scar. The wound never closes. Shoot a hole in a cadaver and come back later and the hole is still there. There’s never a scar. Do you get it? Jesus didn’t say death. He’s alive. His scars are testimony to the risen Christ. But there’s more. Thank God for scars, because your scars testify that you’re alive, that you survived. Your scars tell the story that even though you might have thought that your time was going to end, it didn’t. When your spouse left you and you thought, there’s nothing left in my life, that scar testifies that you survived when your child died and you knew that you didn’t want to live anymore. The scar tells us all that you survived when you had that car wreck. You didn’t let the wound win. You survived when cancer threatened to end your life, and you spent all that time worried that your life will be ruined. Those scars remind you that you’re a survivor. But your scars can be more than that. Your scars can be your motivation to serve others who are going through what you survived. Oh. Scars testify that there was pain. Make no mistakes about that. The wound was deep and painful, and it took a long time to slowly close and finally heal. But the scar. The scar is a reminder that God can redeem the painful moments of our lives. The only question that remains is, has your wound healed? What do you need to do to close that wound and start healing? What do you still need to do to let it become a scar? See, a scar is never ugly. That’s what the scar makers want us to think. But scars are testimony to our survival and God’s ability to heal.