Scarred for life …

Jim Luthy is sometimes quick to ask people if they want to see his scar.

The scar from when he was …

Well, let Jim tell his story:

It was a regular work day. There were six of us in a room — myself, two other men, and three women. One of the guys was talking about his vacation when one of the women handed him a knife and he stabbed me, right in the lower abdomen. The last thing I remembered before I passed out was the women working to control the bleeding. I woke up in a fifth floor hospital bed at St. Peter’s Hospital in Olympia. You wanna see my scar?

I think I better tell you the whole story. It was indeed a regular work day while I worked for the State Patrol, but I wasn’t at work. The room was a surgical room and the five other people in the room were my anesthesiologist, my surgeon, and three nurses. They were there to perform an appendectomy, which is why the doctor stabbed me in the gut. Fortunately, he had my best interest at heart and he was nice enough to sew me up when he was finished.

You see, if you don’t hear the whole story, the act of a surgeon cutting into you with a knife can sound quite traumatic. Who would opt for that? But for someone who is sick and in need of relief, it is a welcome wound.

It doesn’t take being on this planet very long before learning that life will scar you. Whether it’s a skinned knee from crashing on your bicycle, a mark left from a surgeon’s work, or deep emotional scars from interactions with other human beings, it’s not likely you’ll get through this life without collecting some scars.

The physical scars hurt but heal. I once oversaw a program at a hospital that provided wound care to people. Some people had physical wounds that had remained open for decades, but our medical team was able to help them heal from even the most difficult wounds. Their work would leave a scar, but there would be healing.

I’ve also counseled people who have wrestled with emotional wounds for years, even decades. And I’ve seen the same people be healed from such wounds, even though a scar might remain.

But there’s a wound each of us bears, and it comes from the trauma that sin causes in our lives. No earthly doctor can treat it, no counselor can help bring healing for it. This wound can only be healed by the Great Physician, Jesus Christ. And guess what …. He bears the scars for us!

“Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!'” John 20:27.

Jesus could have chosen for His resurrected body to be without blemish, but instead He bears the scars of nail-piercings to His hands and feet, and the scar of a spear puncture to His side, to bear witness forever of His sacrifice for our sins. His scars represent the story of our redemption, and spark in us a fire of faith!

“‘My Lord and my God!’ Thomas exclaimed,” John 20:28.

Have you let the Great Physician heal you of your wounds caused from sin?

Scotty