His Scars of Love

Isn’t it interesting how almost every scar has a story? 

Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, and I’d like to tell you a story about a scar. The other morning when my friend was helping me get up, she noticed for the first time a scar on the side of my knee. “Where’d you get this?” she asked. Well, you know, it happened so long ago, I’d almost forgotten I had a scar on my knee. I described to my friend how, when I was about 11 years old, I was walking on a wooden railroad tie, pretending it was a balance beam. You know, like I was a gymnast? Never mind that there were railroad spikes still in the wood. To my imagination, this was a gymnastics competition, and so I held my arms out, held my head high, and jumped high like gymnasts do. Well, mine was not a perfect 10 landing. I tripped, fell forward and – oh, boy, it makes me cringe to say this now – I fell on the railroad tie, and my knee landed on one of those spikes that was sticking straight up. Yikes! When I realized I had literally impaled myself on the wood, I started screaming. Well, my father heard me, came running, and he had to carefully lift me, my leg, off the spike. And all I remember after that was Daddy cleaning out the wound with alcohol. Oh, yikes, did that hurt! But you know what? What I most remember was the look of tender care and compassion on Daddy’s face. If ever as a child I doubted his love, I tell you what, it was put to rest then. Because for weeks after that, my daddy made a nighttime ritual of carefully examining and re-bandaging that wound until it was healed. And the scar on my knee has become a symbol of the love of my dad and, for that, I’ll never forget it – and if I do, I’ve got that scar on my knee to remind me of Daddy’s love 

I’m sure you have scars on your body. Maybe not from a childhood accident, but perhaps a surgical operation. The scar you bear may not even be a physical one, but emotional; and I have a feeling you have quite a story to go with that scar.  They do go together, don’t they? Scars and stories of how we got them.   

Well, God has his scars, too, and they are described in that amazing scene in Revelation 5 where the Apostle John looks up into a breathtaking vision of heaven and says, “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain.” Well, I mean, this was a vision of the Lamb, Jesus, with his visible wounds. Jesus Christ who will forever bear his scars up there in heaven. God never intended that the resurrection should erase the nail prints in the hands of his Son. And the reason Jesus will keep his scars is so that the wonderful story of redemption – the story behind those scars – that story of deep pain and incredible sacrifice will always be lauded. It will always be told. The enormous cost of Christ’s death on the cross will be told time and again throughout all of eternity. And his scars will tell the story of amazing grace and mercy. 

So, friend, remember, if ever as a child of God you are tempted to doubt the love of your heavenly Father, put those doubts to rest today. Think of your Savior interceding for you right now this minute and doing so with hands clasped together in prayer that bear the wounds of his great love for you. His scars are an eternal symbol to remind you and me that we never need fear. There is never a need to be anxious. There should never be reason to doubt – to doubt the love of Jesus. Because his love for you goes far, far deeper than nails driven into his body. It’s the old, old story of his scars of love – love for you! 

© Joni and Friends