ApprehendingGrace.com

Being a Doctor Must be Strange!
I think being a doctor must be quite strange – in order to bring healing, the MD almost always has to damage perfectly healthy body parts. I’ve had healthy skin and muscles cut through to reach areas that require healing. I’ve had perfectly good bones drilled through so they could be connected to broken ones. (Do aspiring doctors really dream about using power tools?) In all cases, my body has developed scar tissue as a part of the healing process. I also have my share of scars from much more minor injuries sustained throughout my life.

There’s one scar on my hand that makes me smile every time I see it because it’s a reminder of a wonderful vacation I had in Cozumel. On the first day, though, I brushed my hand across the back of a wicker chair and scratched it. Why I still have a scar from what I really don’t remember as much of an injury, I don’t know, but it helps me remember the vacation wonderful fondly.

My Elbow Story
I also have a scar on my arm that represents a thoroughly unpleasant experience – I shattered my elbow about fifteen years ago. That was one of those times the doctor had to cut through perfectly healthy skin and muscle and drill holes in healthy bone to secure pieces of bone together. It’s a pretty big and obvious scar. Yet in the midst of the very painful recover, I experienced God more strongly than I ever have in my life. The scar is a reminder of that time, and also of the miracle He did in healing the elbow well beyond what several doctors said it would heal.

To me, these two scars are like the stones that the Israelites would pile up as a remembrance of something the Lord has done.

When my elbow was healing, I had to massage the incision area several times a day to keep scar tissue from forming inside. The scar tissue was hard and would restrict my future movement if I didn’t break it up as it was forming. It hurt to massage the sensitive skin and muscles. It wasn’t pleasant feeling the hard scar tissue under my skin as I rubbed it. The injury was too fresh in my mind, and the whole process made me want to cringe. After a couple of months, I had healed a great deal, but there seemed to be some scar tissue that no amount of massaging would soften. I went to a revival and healing meeting at a local church one night. After being prayed for, I felt the muscles in my arm relax and the scar tissue under the incision noticeably and significantly lessened. God had supernaturally massaged my arm and disintegrated most of the remaining scar tissue. What a gracious God He is!

Emotional and Spiritual Scars
Scars don’t just develop from our physical injuries. Emotional and spiritual pain and injury also causes scars, and these can be just as unsightly as our physical scars. More seriously, just like physical scars, they can restrict our future movement, ministry and freedom in Christ. And just like our physical scars, they don’t soften and break up on their own. They require the gentle massaging that comes through reading God’s Word, listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and allowing the Lord Himself to step into our pain.

I am confident that God would like to work miracles in all the scarred areas of our life, if we’ll only let Him massage them a bit. When those areas are too fresh, we cringe from His touch, but He is patient. If we stay close to Him and open to His leading, He brings the subject up again and again until we’re ready to let Him do the deeper massage to break up hard tissue that obstructs our movement. It is for freedom that He has set us free (Galatians 5:1) – part of that freedom comes from willingly submitting to His gentle hand to work out the scar tissue in our lives.

Our emotional and spiritual scars also become like the stones the Israelites piled up as remembrances of what the Lord has done – both for us and for the Lord. We remember His graciousness and His healing power. He remembers our willingness to step into the line of fire, our perseverance through difficult times and circumstances, and our submission to His gentle hand of healing. I believe our healed scars are part of what makes us beautiful to the Lord. It is the battle-weary saint who captures the eye of her beloved.

Will you take a few moments today to ask God what scar tissue He would like to massage and heal? Wholeness is a wonderful thing and worth the pain that brings healing.

I pray peace and gentle massages in your healing journey today.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 5th, 2010 at 9:44 pm and is filed under Freedom, Spiritual Maturity, suffering, Trials, Trusting God. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.