Wounds and Scars

The following piece by Amy Carmichael has long been a challenging favorite of mine.

It is real…
It is earthy…
It speaks of the truth that wounds and scars are a part of life…

Not something to run away from…
Not something to turn us into victims…
Not the end of the journey…

Rather, it’s the beginning of the journey.

What wounds do you have that you have tried to cover, to fix, to identify you?

In my book Sacred Space I wrote a chapter called Sacred Wounds. The big idea of the chapter is how God longs to take our wounds and redeem them in order to become restorative for others…yet, if we leave them unattended, they turn into bitter wounds and we become victims… and victims never realize the power of wounds and realized in scars when redeemed.

Hast Thou No Scar 

by Amy Carmichael

Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,
Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?
Yet, I was wounded by the archers, spent.
Leaned me against the tree to die, and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound?

No wound? No scar?
Yet as the Master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole. Can he have followed far
Who has no wound nor scar?