Scars

I was about 14 years old and my brother Phillip was about 12.  It had snowed a damp snow - just the kind to make great snow forts and snowballs.  Can you see where this is going?  You guessed it.  We were making our forts and setting up strategic snowball stockpiles.  The only problem was that we only had one snow shovel.  An argument soon developed with both of us tugging on the same snow shovel.  I overpowered Phillip, so he let go at just the moment of my fiercest yank.  I ended up hitting myself in the head with the sharp edge of the snow shovel.  After a trip to the doctor, I had six stitches in my right eyebrow.  But I was happy.  Scars made me look more like a street fighter.  Now I am seventy years old, and I still have that scar in my right eyebrow.  When shaving or trimming my eyebrows in the mirror, I am reminded of the snow shovel war almost sixty years ago.  Hey, do you have a scar to remember a mishap in the past?  Or, do you have any spiritual scars to remember past failures?  It could be a divorce.  It could be time served in prison.  It could be a departed loved one that was never reconciled.  Whatever the scar, God’s grace is there.  God will forgive if we but ask.  John said in I Jn 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Never forget, God will forgive and forget.  But from our standpoint, the scar will always be there.  But remember that the scar is a good reminder - of our mistake AND of God’s forgiveness.