Scar Cultivated Resilience

There are two words that I have come to love deeply because they are synonymous with stories of survival marked by grace.  They are also my Corban words and this momma bear could not be more thankful that a young man loaned to us almost 13 years ago embodies what it means to thrive with Scar cultivated Resilience.

Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties or toughness.  The grace of this word is that Corban has claimed ownership!  As he has wrestled with the hard ache of loss and rejection over the past several years he learned about resilience a year ago in Miss Flagel's 5th-grade classroom. He was so enthusiastic as he jumped in the car after school and announced that this word was his.  Oh, I love that!  He just plucked it, claimed it and marked it as a definer of himself.  GO CORBAN! 

Scars form when the deep thick layer of skin is damaged. The body forms new collagen fibers that mend the damage, resulting in a scar. The new scar tissue has a different texture and quality than the surrounding tissue.  Just like a scar, we often respond to life's challenges with a different texture and quality because of the experiences that have hurt and remodeled us. I love that scars only form on the living after a wound is completely healed as a kind of natural ink that says "I survived."

Corban at Seattle Children's after heart surgery.

Maybe this word, scar, is especially dear to me because it epitomizes the evidence of grace.  To this day, the silvery map lines running all over Corban's chest tell his scaring story of resilience both inside and out.  So many "remember when moments" have been like off-roading over Ebenezer stones with the man whose name means "set apart for a holy purpose."

 "I remember when you got that extra star-shaped scar on your side! Your lungs were collapsing from a surgical complication and we scooped you out of the hospital bed and jogged down the hospital corridor so they could put a fourth chest tube in your tiny body. Jesus was protecting you through the watchful eye of your daddy who noticed the problem" 

"Oh, and I remember when you won that scar the size of a quarter below your collar bone? It was where your skin came off right along with the transparent bandage they used to peer inside your chest cavity after they fixed your broken heart."

Although it’s not healthy to live constantly in the past we can use our scars to help others. We honor God when we reveal the beauty in our brokenness. There is a rugged, gritty grace in scars that have stories.  

Nail Scarred Hands by bccollective

It's Holy Week - an ideal time to recount the grace of scars.  Christ is our perfect example of the redemption scar story. Don't hide your scars - inside or out - but wear them as proof of God's redeeming love for us.