My Scar

I’ve got a 4” scar on my neck, and it’s pretty special to me. Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada. You know, after my diving accident, the surgeons opened the front of my neck to fuse two broken cervical vertebrae. For almost a year after that operation, I tried hard to cover up that big surgical gash. I wore only scarves around my neck, even in summer. But my attitude about that scar changed as my understanding of God’s purposes also changed. When I began to see what God was doing through my broken neck, I started to take pride in that scar. It showed that I belonged to Jesus. You know, the apostle Paul says in Galatians, “I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Christ.” Friend, do you bear a scar that’s visible? An emotional scar? Well, according to Galatians, it is God’s mark of ownership on you. And if anyone wonders about that, show them your scar and tell them it shows you belong to Jesus.

© Joni and Friends

The Scars That Have Shaped Me:

How God Meets Us in Suffering

Twenty-one surgeries by age thirteen. Years in the hospital. Verbal and physical bullying from schoolmates. Multiple miscarriages as a young wife. The death of a child. A debilitating progressive disease. Riveting pain. Abandonment. Unwanted divorce.

Vaneetha Rendall Risner begged God for grace that would deliver her. But God offered something better: his sustaining grace.

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