A couple weeks
ago I sat on our family room couch staring at our dented-up coffee table trying
to decide if I wanted to sand it down and stain it again or just donate it.
But how could I give away the table I
learned to walk around, that my kids learned to walk around, that we all scarred
with teeth marks and toys?
I stared down at
the table-top—varnish paper-thin, naked wood poking through gouges so deep
there was no sanding them out this time.
As I ran my
fingers over the scarred surface, I remembered the time I danced a jig on it in
a purple tutu when I was eight. I remembered the silver “Our Daily Bread”
platter mom placed in the middle on a white doily. I remembered our oldest, Micah,
giggling as he launched match-box cars over the rounded edges. I remembered the Christmas my world fell a
part and I sat on the table weeping as my boys huddled at my feet.
Every scar— a
story.
And I’ve been
reading so many stories—a new widow fighting for the life of her baby girl. A woman,
married just a year, losing her husband on December 7. My friend, Christa, coming
home from Sunday dinner with friends and finding her home burned to grey ash.
And my friend Valerie aching over the days-old loss of her grandpa.
Life gouges
deep.
We try—I’ve
tried!—all sorts of fillers—food, work, exercise, busyness.
We paint on thin
veneers of righteous living, worldly success.
But the
fillers never fill, the veneers eventually crack, and our real selves—scarred selves—poke through.
Then—raw, naked,
vulnerable—we’re ready to be filled with the only One who truly fills.
When life gouges deep, Jesus fills us
with the fullness of Himself.
And we who are
redeemed are not defined by the scars of this life but by the Fullness of God.
So we do not
lose heart!
For when Jesus
fills us up, he opens our eyes to
Hope in Him,
Eternal
inheritance In Him,
Power In Him!
For, in Him, our inner self is being renewed
day by day, and the scars of
life are preparing us for glory beyond all comparison, in Him!
So we
look not to the scars that are seen,
but
To Jesus,
who is
able “to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or think, according to the
power at work within us.”
To Him be
the glory, forever and ever.
Amen.
*2
Corinthians 4, Ephesians 1, 3 paraphrased.
