Everyone has scars, some just happen to be on the outside where everyone can see. While others are hidden deep within. It is hard to reprogram our brains to look at the scars differently.
This is what my Mom taught me about mine:
I had surgery when I was born that left me with 2 scars on my neck & one on my belly, which looked like a centipede. Mom told me they were beautiful and they tell my story of how God saved me. These scars, she said, gave me a new chance at life. I remember, my brother said, “Mom, you are not going to let her wear a two piece bathing suit are you?” Well, yes she did and I have most of the time.
I have had people stare at me and I just smile back at them, because it is something to look at. I have had kids ask me about it. I tell them it does not look like their belly, because I have a different story than they do.
I was a miracle baby born at 35 weeks. I had 3/4 of my small intestines removed at birth. The small intestines was gangrene, which was caused by it flipping the opposite way they are supposed to go, known as a volvus. This was while I was forming in my mother’s womb. I was the first baby to live at UT hospital with this condition.
The doctors told my mother, after 40 days in the NICU, that she was taking me home to die. She had pumped her breast every day to feed me. She kept me on her breast for a very very long time because they kept telling her I was going to die. At some point they said to her well I guess she’s not going to die!
My mother started the breast milk bank at UT, my father always said that’s what saved my life. But when I was pregnant with the twins I had a doctor come talk to me. I was in the hospital and he said he came up to see me. Because I should not be here. That they still have babies in the NICU at UT dying from a volvus of the intestines. They can see them forming incorrectly, but they can’t do anything to reverse it. These babies are getting breast milk. The breast milk is not what saved me. It was God‘s mighty hand that saved me.
Since that first surgery I have had three other scars added to my belly that change the shape of my belly button. I now have a scar on my breast and under my arm as well. But they all tell a different story, but with the same theme, God saved me. I know everyone’s story is different, but I have learned to embrace my story and I pray you do as well. You are beautifully made in God’s image and loved so very much by Him that he sent his son to die for you! I never thought that was any different than what my mother would do. I was sure my mother would die for me.
The difference is that Jesus had to take on the sins of all the world and was separated from his father. That no one else could do for me. I have learned to embrace my scars and learn with each new one, God has just added to His incredible story of his love and grace for me! May you come to realize this as well no matter where or what your scars look like, they are beautiful to God!
He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.
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