Scars

“That’s mommy’s pain.”, my 2 year old daughter says immediately upon seeing this picture. 

 

Oh my darling girl, yes. This is the place of mommy’s pain. But this is also the place that created and carried you ~ my 4^th amazing miracle. 

 

Isn’t it crazy how the same places that bear our greatest scars can also bear our greatest beauty? 

 

Survival is beautiful. Resilience is beautiful. Life is wildly beautiful and impossibly hard ~ often at the same time. 

 

Sometimes the places of our deepest scars can also be the places of our deepest healing. 

 

We can heal. As bodies and communities and cultures. Our scars tell the stories we’ve lived. 

The stories and scars matter. But the scars are only a part of the story.

 

There is beauty even here. In the places you’ve kept hidden. In the places buried in pain and shame and hopelessness. 

 

You see, my daughter will tell more of the story as she grows. 2 years later, she already sees my scarred abdomen differently. 

She knows it tells a wild, hard, painful, and wonderful story. It tells a story of life, beauty, pain, growth, healing, and loss. 

She knows it nurtured her very life and brought her safely into the world. 

She knows it grew her 3 brothers into being. 

She knows of the babies it carried directly to the arms of Jesus. 

She also knows that it is safe to touch and lean against now. 

My abdomen no longer carries severe pain, but the scars still share parts of the story. 

 

Don’t let your scars define you. Let them instead be an opportunity to share your story. We all have stories with scars. Let your scars be reframed. 

 

Instead of ugly problems to be covered up or fixed, let your scars become a place of healing and beauty. 

Instead of an abnormality or mistake, let them become a place of survival and growth. 

Instead of a marking of failure, let them be marks of compassion and hope. 

 

This doesn’t take away the pain of what you’ve experienced, or make it ‘better’ in any way. 

This simply shows that the scars are not the whole story. 

 

The whole story is often beyond complex, and it never needs to be wrapped up in a bow. 

But sharing parts of our stories can help each other know we are not alone, and lead to more collective healing. 

 

May we be willing to share.

May we be willing to listen. 

May we carry our scars for what they are ~ a part of our story, a part of us ~ beautiful symbols of life being lived.