“Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.” Psalm 30:5b
It was one of those moments. My wife Judy and I were sitting on her brother’s patio in South Georgia waiting for the sun to make its appearance. Slowly but predictably the night slipped away and a new day began the birth process. As I looked out across the yard in the dusky gray of early morning, a pile of burnt trees, caught my eye. The trees were piled up the result of a hurricane that had swept through the area taking too many threes with it. About a year later, a power line fell and sparked a fire in the field igniting dried grass and the piles of dead trees. After a six hour battle, the forest service got the fire under control. Although time has passed, the scars from the fire remains.
A few minutes later, I glanced across the road and saw more scars. These weren’t caused by a fire but rather from the wind of the hurricane I mentioned earlier. These scars were different because the trees were different. These trees were younger pine trees and because they were thinner they weren’t blown over but instead left twisted and bent. Regardless…what remained was a field of scars–reminding all who looked of the night winds over one hundred miles an hours ravaged the area.
Scars are not confined just to nature, are they? They can be found everywhere including our lives and the lives of those around us. Sometimes the scars are physical but sometimes they are emotional. Regardless, as we bump into people we should remember that most of them bear the scars from past pain. The one glimmer of good about scars is that they remind us that the wound will eventually heal. A field ravaged by fire will give birth to new growth and new trees. A forest damaged by the wind will also eventually regrow. And gratefully, even the wounds of life will eventually heal leaving the past in the past.
That same morning that I saw the charred trees and the ones twisted by the storm, I saw something else. As the dawn grew and the night slithered away, the sun peeked over the horizon and beams of light filled the whole area. They bathed the green grass, the piles of charred trees and even the twisted forest. And, in that moment, I realized those beams were beams of hope. The dawn of that new day offered new hope.
Here is the big truth for this story. Just as the beams of the sun brought hope, so the beams of the Son of God offers hope to those still struggling with the wounds of life. No matter the cause, no matter how intense the pain, Jesus can bring light and hope into the darkness. And, He doesn’t do it some of the time, rather He does it every time. So today as you look around or perhaps in your heart and you see the wounds and scars of life, remember that Jesus is there, is here to help you heal. And remember this…each scar is a reminder that wounds do heal and that mo matter what, “He’s got this.” Bro. Dewayne
