It is fascinating to me that when Jesus Christ appeared to the disciples after his resurrection that he had scars. The Bible is quite clear that he showed them his hands and his feet as evidence that it was indeed him - the one who had received nails through his hands and feet on a cross. The Bible is also clear that once resurrected we will be given new bodies - they are different kinds of bodies than the one's we live in now. They are still us, but they are new. And yet, Jesus' new body has scars. In Heaven, where there is no more pain, sadness, tears or disease, it seems odd that there would be scars on our new bodies.
A scar is a mark of a wound and usually a painful one. A sizable scar often has not only physical pain associated with it, but emotional pain as well. And yet, the fact that there is a scar indicates that there was healing. Healing is one of the grand works of God. Healing speaks of redemption and goodness over and against a world of pain and wounding. The moments when we received the injury and the wounding are often a painful traumatic time - in many cases a fearful one. But time has an interesting effect on scars.
Consider two people enjoying lighthearted company, when they begin to show each other their scars - perhaps veterans showing battle scars. In this case, the scars are something pointed to with fondness. Now that the pain and fear of the battlefield is long past, the scars are points of interest, places of healing and often accompanied by grand stories. Victory stories. See, anyone who is showing a scar is telling a story of healing one way or another. "What about the person who has a wound that they didn't survive?" That would be like Jesus. Even if the wound meant your death - the resurrection is God's answer - and so in the power of God's resurrection - all scars become marks of healing and victory. The more I think about this, the more intrigued I get. Will we have scars on our heavenly bodies. I think so. Thank God.
