Have you ever crashed your bike? Or fell off roller skates? Maybe you’ve broken a bone or two playing a sport or doing something just plain foolish? Most of us have, and we have the scars to prove it. When I was about 7 years old, my sister was so mad at me for kicking her down the stairs… can’t imagine why she’d be so mad? “Her response” you ask? She bit through my winter coat, about 5 layers of clothes, and pierced my skin; the result is a scar on my right arm just above my elbow that I’ve carried ever since. The lesson, don’t kick my sister down the stairs…”Check!”

A scar is a mark remaining after the healing of a wound. Almost everyone has some kind of visible scar, because life isn’t always kind. Sometimes you get kicked down stairs by a sibling, fall off a bike, or get checked into the boards…most scars that are visible are the result of harm or injury to your physical body. The same way that we are wounded physically and have scars to show for it, we are also victims of emotional wounds that leave us emotionally scarred. The difference is that emotional scars are often invisible. There is no hospital for the emotionally wounded, or casts that help keep emotions together. I believe the reason most emotional scars are not visible is because they don’t exist. Remember, a scar remains after the healing of a wound. Most emotional wounds never heal and can’t even leave a scar behind to tell the story.

Honestly, there isn’t a week that Casey and I don’t get a phone call, email, or text message about a student in our ministry, or one of their friends at school, that is dealing with a significant emotional wound. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be talking about the truth of emotional scars – Hurt Happens, but God Heals!