scars in the same way we live through the making of our own . He speaks the language of hurt , loneliness , shame , rejection , and pain as fluently as we speak it . His love is not some sort of theoretical , vague , abstract sort of love . No , His love got dirty . it got into the game , it put on work gloves , it crawled into the ditch , and it sat in church . He chose His scars while facing the same choices , swamped with the same overwhelming feelings , fighting the same temptations in just as weak a body as we have , because He loved with an incomprehensible , forever solid sort of love .
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He loved with an incomprehensible , forever solid sort of love .
The scars on my two babies weren ’ t put there for fun , they were each made in an effort to free them from some sort of trouble that was threatening their health and well being . They needed to eat , they needed to breath , they needed life sustaining medicine , the scars had to happen for life to happen . Most of them have a paper somewhere in some file with my signature scrawled across it , giving permission for Dr . Surgeon So and So to make the cut that would create the scar . I ’ ve never signed one of those papers , I ’ ve never watched the wiggling little bundle on the bed disappear down the hall with the anesthesia team , or heard the double doors clank solidly shut behind them , without feeling my heart crumble just a little bit . Imagine the pain our Heavenly Father felt the day that Jesus left Heaven , the day He “ signed off ” on the scars that were to come . But still the angles sang the day that Jesus was born ! Why ? Because His scars were to buy our freedom . The problem of sin was going to be cured for forever . Love was going to win !
Love does win , it always wins . Today , with this problem , right now , just the way I am , Jesus loves me . He loves me , He loves me , He loves me ! When I accept His love , I am free , completely and totally , now and forever . I am free from impossible perfection : I did not earn , ask for , or buy His love , therefore I cannot loose it . I am free from the fear of abandonment : God is consistently the same , statistically reliable , and eternally dependable . I am free to rest in complete assurance of His love : God is perfect love , and perfect , by definition , cannot fail . His love is a love with no conditions attached , no behavior modifications required , no hidden agenda , no physical improvements requested , no special attentions needed . No nothing . Just perfect love available to me every day , in every situation , under the cloud of any circumstance , all the time , in this actual present moment . What could possible be more freeing than that ?! Where can I possibly hope to find a love like that other than in Jesus Christ ? I won ’ t find it in a human being , and I certainly won ’ t find it in myself .
No life is fully free from scars of some kind , we all have our stories to tell . The sadness is not that scars exist , the sadness is when scars are permitted to be the period at the end of the story . The true end of the story doesn ’ t come until I look down and see a nail scarred hand securely holding mine , and I understand that my story is not a story of scars , but a two thousand year old story of love .
1 John 4:9-10 “ In this was manifested the love of God toward us , because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world , that we might live through him . Herein is love , not that we loved God , but that he loved us ...” a bit different . It was written by Dave Bilbrough in 1979 , and is a worship hymn , titled “ Let there be love shared among us ”:
SHEMAGAZINE . COM FEBRUARY 2017 27