Scars: When You Realize How Much They Mean

Last night as I sat in the living room of my "Fox family's" home, I was in conversation with an 8 year old about scars. He saw a couple different scars on my knees and asked what they were from and then continued on to show me his scars and their stories. 

After sitting there and examining my legs for scars, he looked further up my leg and saw a small scar on my upper thigh (I was in running shorts because I had worked out before coming over.) He asked about that one, and I said it was from a surgery where they had inserted a small tube to drain fluids.

He looked up at me with a somewhat worrisome look and said, "Is that a cancer surgery scar?" I nodded, and he asked with another unsettling look, "Did it hurt?"

I began to explain to him that when I had my 3 different surgeries that they would put me to sleep, and I would not feel anything, and then after I woke up I had medicine that helped with the pain.

He then asked if he could see all of my scars. I lifted up my shorts just a little bit further and showed him my 4(ish) inch scar where the doctors had cut through my muscles and nerves to remove several lymph nodes when the cancer had returned for a second time.

He then began to re-examine his scars and said to me, "I like that your scars have a story."

I was amazed at what I had just heard come out of this 8-year-old's mouth. I just recently bought a tankini bathing suit with shorts bottoms because although all of the scars on my stomach and leg were patched up by a plastic surgeon and hardly look like surgery scars, I don't like my scars showing. 

I can honestly say that I have never found my scars to be "beautiful" like many people say about their own.  The bottom line is that our scars can speak volumes about our lives. Factually, they evidence life's traumas. 

I think about when I was growing up and every time I got a scar, it was just another "badge of courage" that I got to show off to my friends. I would show them to everyone I knew, and my story got more exciting the more I told it. Why don't have this same mentality anymore? Why have I become so ashamed of these scars?

My scars are evidence of how my medical team had applied their skills and talent to rid my body of cancer. They have created a physical sign healing and salvation within my story. 

I was in conversation with a friend not too long ago when she asked to see my scars and at first I almost said no, but then began to roll up my shirt and pant leg to show her. She saw the the reluctance on my face, and asked if she share something. 

She began to explain to me more about the power behind the scars of our bodies simply because of the way that Jesus handled His scars. She pulled out her Bible and opened up to Luke. 

"Why are you frightened?" he asked. "Why are your hearts filled with doubt? Look at my hands. Look at my feet. You can see it's really me. Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost, because ghosts don't have bodies, as you see that I do. As he spoke, he showed them his hands and his feet." Luke 24:38-40. 

Right then is when I realized that scars are powerful; even my own. Jesus used His scars to reassure the people around Him of salvation, healing, and His return.

I am standing here today, alive and healthy, with the ability to show you the scars that saved my life. 

"Children show scars like medals... A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh." Leonard Cohen.