Love Scars II – Branded

Six months ago I wrote of raw scars (see Love Scars, September 12, 2010). Today I write of raw beauty that has been fashioned from those scars. There are now new marks to become acquainted with that in time will fade, though will never be completely gone. Would I wish them so? No, for I am branded by the constant reminder that as He promised, God has given me beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61:3a).

I was released from the hospital a few weeks ago boasting eight more of those ‘grenade’ drains that I came to know and not love after last August’s mastectomy surgery. Shortly after hitting the two-week mark at home, I paid a visit to have the final drain removed and found myself humming a little different rendition of a popular worship chorus:

My drains are gone, I’ve been set free!

My plastic surgeon has rescued me! …

Now I’m settled in for the next two months and find my heart and mind doing a lot of processing (while humming the hymn of breast cancer reconstruction patients everywhere, Fill my cups, Lord and lift them up, Lord! I’m glad He’s given us the capacity for humor and laughter; we’d be sadly sober without it!).

But then, just as quickly, I go back to processing. Having been seared with God’s branding iron multiple times in the last four+ years, I clearly see a progression that bears witness in scripture (read the book of Nehemiah). Just as I went from a lumpectomy scar to bilateral mastectomy scars – from bad to worse, one might say – and finally on to reconstruction, so it is with matters of our wellspring if we truly desire to be rid of sin and death’s disease.

God will never reconstruct on unregenerate ground. Man tries to time and again, but if we want to be rebuilt on solid ground and not shifting sand – that a ‘life tsunami’ can wipe out in mere minutes – the rubble of the old must be carried out before the structure of the new can become reality, standing strong, straight, and true, like a plumb line by which the structure’s integrity and alignment is measured.

The problem is we don’t like new scars. Often, we’d rather maintain the old ones we’ve gotten used to than go through the fresh slice of God’s sword designed to cut away the dying and bring to healing and new life.

Browsing back to my trusty online Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definitions of scar given below confirmed what Holy Spirit was whispering to me about this particular post…

1 – a mark left (as in the skin) by the healing of injured tissue

2 – a mark left on a stem or branch by a fallen leaf or harvested fruit

“Healing of injured tissue” – the natural description and “a mark left…by… harvested fruit” – a spiritual portrayal of the longing to abide in Christ and Him in us in order to bear much fruit (John 15:5b).

If branding scares you, that’s ok. Why would anyone in their right mind want to be seared and scorched? But as a believer, you have the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:4-16). When you begin to understand how He thinks (which is not how we think) and respond to His administrations of love and mercy no matter how fierce they seem, you find you are not powerless to submit to the scars that will heal, both in the natural and the spiritual. His Holy Spirit empowers your ability to respond when you stop resisting. Once again, it’s surrender.

Out of such healing comes the foundation for wellsprings of substance. Yes, it leaves scars, but they become scars of love whereas before they were scars of pain.

Are you willing to be branded by Love? He was branded for you and He wears love scars, too.

Owned by Jesus, branded by Love…

Gracefully Free