Scars and Baggage

When I was 12 years old I enjoyed building models. I remember the tool box I assembled for model building. It had all sorts of paints and brushes, spare parts and left over pieces, and razor knives and files. One warm summer day I was in the backyard building a model rocket when I learned a very valuable lesson. Don't try to catch a round handled razor knife as it rolls off the table. I ended up with a laceration in my thumb that required more than a band-aid to bind it together. The reason I remember this story is the scar on my right thumb. Every time I see the scar I remember that warm summer day in Chesterfield, Connecticut and the lesson I learned.

Scars are the result of a wound. Sometimes it's a deep wound and at other times it is shallow. Some scars are just stretch marks from when our body was stretched to it's limit. There are creams and ointments that help make scars get softer and fade, but they never go away completely. They are always there. That's a good thing. They serve as a reminder to us and they serve as a testimony to others of our healing. The reminder helps us to trust that what we have gone through before, though it may have hurt, did not stop us. As we face other potential hurts and challenges, we know that we made it through before, and we can make it through again. These scars also help us testify about our healing. The scar doesn't appear until the healing is well on it's way to completion. People see our scars and ask about them. They become a badge, or a sign of healing. This allows us to share the story and what we learned during the process.

Baggage is similar. You can tell a lot about someone by the baggage they carry. Sometimes we over pack. My wife says I have a tendency to do that. I attribute it to being a Boy Scout and always being prepared. Sometimes we under pack. Occasionally we use trunks, and other times small overnight bags. All of these tell something about us. All of these have to be lugged with us wherever we go when we're traveling. It is not fun when you are traveling with someone who over packs and they can't carry all of their own baggage. But we've all been there. Either being the one carrying too much, or being the one to help carry the overage.

All of this can easily be used as a metaphor for our spiritual and emotional lives. Scars and baggage are very real things in our lives. When we are wounded and hurt, we receive a scar. Sometimes it's big and noticeable and other times it's easily hidden from everyone but our closest confidants. These scars, just like their physical counterparts, serve as a reminder to us of a hurt or a wounding and can be a conversation starter to testify of how the Lord can and does heal our hurts and wounds.

Scars and baggage tie together when we don't heal from our hurts and wounds properly. When we don't seek the necessary help to bind up a wound or heal a hurt, the scar is bigger and more jagged. It tends to be uglier. We carry around the source of the hurt or wound in baggage wherever we go. The more hurts and wounds we receive without proper help to heal them, the more baggage we carry.

The physical scar on my thumb isn't bad. It was a pretty small wound and I put the stitch in myself. If I had gone to a doctor, it probably would have been done much better and the scar would be much smaller if present at all. I was fortunate. It doesn't always work out that way. Some of the scars we bear are from circumstances completely out of our control, but there is a scar and the chance for baggage nonetheless.

In Romans 8:28, the Apostle Paul tells us that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him. This does not mean that God orchestrates bad circumstances or situations that will purposely cause us pain and discomfort. What Paul is telling us is that all things, everything in this fallen world under the control of the devil, that wound us and hurt us can be used for good by God  in us that love Him. Let the Great Physician bind up your wounds. Allow the Great Counselor to hear your troubles and bring you guidance and comfort. Only then will you have small scars with great stories of God's faithfulness and presence through the whole situation and very little baggage to carry as a result.