One day when I was a little girl my dad bought a bike home just for me. He asked my mom not to allow me to ride it until he had the time to check it out thoroughly to make sure it was safe. Well, he went to work and came home for what seemed like weeks and did nothing with my new old bike. One day I went to my mom and begged her to let me ride it up the street and back and I would be satisfied. After all, how do you give someone a gift like that and not let them use it. I eventually wore her down and off I went.
Several minutes later—after flying around the neighborhood as fast as I could, I showed up to the house in tears on foot. My face, forearms, and knees were bleeding and it looked as if I had been in a war and lost the battle significantly. My wounds were only half the problem. The real problem was “we” had disregarded my dad’s instructions to wait and not get on the bike until he could check it out. What we didn’t know, and he did was that the brakes didn’t work.
So, my mom dressed my wounds and hid me from my dad for days. But one day while I should have been in school my father came home for lunch—I was upstairs and making too much noise. When he opened the door to my room and saw all the fresh scars on my face—he knew what had happened. To my surprise he didn’t say a mumbling word. Perhaps he didn’t see the scars. He closed the door, went downstairs, then outside, and placed my bike in the trash. I never rode that bike again and to be honest with you, I was mad with the bike anyway.
The wounds we encounter, will oftentimes leave nasty scars. Scars are evidence that we have been hurt or injured in some way. But the flip side to that is, a scar—doesn’t actually become a scar until healing has taken place. Our scars are proof that we have been physically healed from them. But more times than not, we hold on to the trauma, the pain, and the hurt associated with the scar that was left behind. That can cripple us emotionally for years if we are not careful to “Shake Ourselves Loose” from their memories. We have to see our scar as not only proof of the battle—but the evidence of the healing. Your scar means you came through it alright.
I encourage you to make a decision today, to “Shake Yourself Loose” from the pain and memories associated with the scars left behind and allow God to heal you again, but this time emotionally! Don’t let the pain of the battle you endured, hinder your life any longer. Allow the scars that were left behind motivate you to see the healing that came from them.
My encounter with that bike that day made me never want to ride again. But when the wounds healed, and the scars were finally harder to see—I found myself riding again and enjoying life as I was created to do. Don’t carry your War Scars around with you in a negative light—Shake Yourself Loose and remember—scars remind you that there can be healing. (Read Luke 4:18 KJV)
