Old Scars, Future Healing

In my little back yard is planted an evergreen honeysuckle. It’s a bit of a thug and bullyboy, clambering over other shrubs and killing them off. Like a bad manager, I let it get away with this for too long, preferring to admire its greenery and pretty flowers. Yet when I did cut it back, I saw the damage done. See how this Ribes bush still bears the scars of the bully’s stranglehold.

Sin, like a childhood bully’s horrid glare or rock-hard fist, leaves its scars, long after we have grown up, moved on, or been redeemed from its guilt. Eve and Adam’s sin resulted in their deaths and ours, even though God had covered their nakedness with sacrifice. The prodigal returned to the family farm, but the money he had squandered was forever unrecovered. We Christians, though our slates are wiped clean and our accounts settled, may still live with the consequences of our sin. Some we carry about as scars- regrets, aches and tears. Although we receive grace enough to bear them, it’s only in heaven in which every tear will be dried, every regret cancelled. I believe only the Lord Jesus will bear scars in heaven- the glorious wounds of Calvary, those trophies of divine love. Until then, we may still bear the injuries of worldliness and sin.