Kissing Your Scars

  A few years ago I watched the movie Slum Dog Millionaire which detailed the rise of Jamal Malik from the intense poverty of the slums of Mumbai, India. Along the way he meets the love of his life, but in midst of the movie she is horribly abused and physically scarred on her face. In a deeply moving and tender scene, Jamal reaches down and  tenderly kisses her scar. In this symbolic gesture Jamal illustrates the deep power of true love.... the embracing of our broken places and our imperfections.

  The real world leaves multiple visible and invisible scars in all our lives. We often try to play 'cover up' with those places of injury and hurt. We wonder, 'will anyone really love me' for who we really are? We live in a culture obsessed with the exterior...with temporal beauty. But real and lasting beauty is found in places far deeper than what the human eye can see.  Jesus Christ himself was brutally beaten to the point where he was unrecognizable. What kept Jesus on the cross when he could have easily come down and destroyed those who were afflicting him? Scripture tells us that 'for the joy set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God." (Heb 12:2)  Faith sees past the pain and looks toward relationship.  Jesus died for you.  God understands pain and rejection and knows how to enter our world of hurt.

  While others might mock your failure or suffering, God draws near. Jesus stoops to kiss our scars... our broken places of despair, depression and disappointment. The wounds of the soul leave invisible scars often not erased by time alone.  We need to know we are loved deeply and unconditionally. "God demonstrates his love in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

  In this broken, self centered and superficial world we need to love people where the're at.... right now.  We put conditions on people before we will accept and receive them.  We put internal and external expectations upon people that are often unreachable.  When we love people where they're at, willing to kiss their scars of brokenness, we display the character of God.  The God kind of love reaches out to people where they are right now and offers the hope of acceptance and the dignity of relationship. Will you love the way God loves?

  Your greatest human need is to experience that kind of love....the kind that doesn't cover your scars with the world's 'makeup' but reveals who you really are.  You can have true intimacy in your relationships. But intimacy is best defined as the ability to reveal who you really are without regret. God doesn't just kiss your scars... he reveals the scars he bore for you on the cross....even when we doubt. In a powerful demonstration of acceptance to the doubting apostle Thomas, Jesus showed up after the resurrection and revealed the scars of love, "Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve , but believe.  Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God!"  Jesus didn't have to show Thomas his wounds...but he did.

  Perhaps in your pain today you've grown angry or disappointed in God.  The voice of pain often distorts our hearing and our vision of truth.  We doubt that God cares or knows what we are experiencing. My friends.... God does know. The message of the gospel is that God entered into our world and overcame the horrific suffering that sin brought into our world. Along the way, Jesus was not left untouched by the experiences that have left us scarred and hurting. Today, he reaches out to you and me and answers our doubts once and for all.  Let him kiss your scars.

Jim