Scars

Warning:  Slightly graphic picture below.

I had a very interesting conversation on Sunday.  One of my friends was talking about a scar she has on her leg from a motorcycle accident.  Her skirts always hide it, so I've never seen it and don't know how bad it is.  I started telling her about a scar I have on my head.  "See, right here," I said, as I pointed.  She said, "I don't even see it." I went home and looked in the mirror and she was right.  I could hardly see it and I knew where to look!

I received this scar when I was in the 9th grade.  It was Friday night after youth service.  My sister, a friend, and I were going out to eat.  We stopped at a stop sign.  A frontage road was to my right.  A car came up the frontage road, didn't stop at a stop sign, and broadsided us.  None of us were wearing seat belts (it wasn't the law back then.)  I was thrown into the windshield.  This is what I looked like the next day:

If I I remember correctly, I received about 50 stitches.  A portion of my hair, that had never been cut, was shaved off.  I don't remember anything from the time we were hit until I awoke in the hospital.  I was able to go home that night.

“Scars show us where we have been, they do not dictate where we are going.”
 ~ David Rossi

That was almost 35 years ago.  The physical scar has faded, but the mental scar remains.  I still picture myself with a much larger scar.  I really thought, when I pointed it out to my friend, that she would see how horrible it was.

I don't even know the name of the man who hits us that night.  I never met him, but I've never forgotten what he did.  The outward scar has almost vanished, but if I rub in just the right spot, I can still feel the mark that was left that night.

We all have scars.  Some are in our flesh, others in our hearts and minds.  Scars that no one sees, but we still remember how we got them.

More people have been hurt by a careless tongue than a sharp sword.
~ Mom's Bible

As we go through life, we can be as careless as the young man who ran the stop sign that night.  He got in a car that was not his and left a scar in my life.  Our words, even those spoken in jest or carelessly, can also inflict scars.  The wound will heal, but the bearer of the scar will remember the one who inflicted the pain.

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
Psalm 19:14