A couple of weeks ago I saw a video clip on YouTube of a young man named Nick Vujicic. This 29 year-old Australian man was born without arms and without legs. He has overcome huge obstacles and now has his own worldwide ministry. I encourage you to go to his website Lifewithoutlimbs.org.
In his testimony, Nick referenced a verse in John 9. The man born blind asks Jesus to heal him and Jesus' disciples ask Him who sinned that caused the man to be blind, the man's parents or the man himself. Jesus replies in verse 3, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned but that the works of God should be revealed in him." I had to think about that for a minute. Here was a man that had been blind all his life. We know he was an adult (vs. 21) but that could be anywhere after 13 years old. So for at least 13 years, probably more, this man had been looked down upon, pitied, mocked, had people assume the worst about him, and was a beggar by the time that Jesus met him. God allowed him to experience all that suffering and hurt for the one moment when Jesus came to him and revealed the power of God in Himself.
If you think about it, that could answer a whole lot of "why?" questions. That man didn't know when he was a five-year-old child who couldn't play like other children that God would use him and his blindness as a powerful display of His love.
The same with us. We don't always get to know why right away. We may never know why God chose to give us a limitation or difficulty, or why He allowed certain circumstances in our lives. But I think the answer can be found in John 9:3.
I think that's why God allows scars, be they physical, emotional, or mental. In our day and age of perfection, nobody wants scars because it means there is or was an imperfection, a blemish, a flaw. But no one is perfect and everyone has flaws. Paul writes in Galatians 6:17, "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." I know he was speaking of the physical marks he had as a result of persecution but I think we can apply it to ourselves even if we have never suffered in that way.
If you have a scar, you bear in your body the mark of the Lord Jesus.
God loves you. He created you.
Your scar, whatever it may be, is God's mark of ownership on you.
You might not find out why you have your scar or limitation until you get to heaven but God wants to use you to reveal Himself to the world in a special way.
Will you let Him?
