The Scars

There is the story of Jesus healing ten lepers.  Everyone saw these ten as lepers, scarred, to be avoided and isolated.  Jesus saw something else.  He saw a human being worthy of being loved.  He saw beneath the scars.  For me, the scars represent the wounds of a lifetime, often being produced in our growing up years.  We tend to live and confine ourselves to the limits of our scars.  We might even isolate some.  But there is more to each of us than our past.  There is so much potential and it comes forth strong when we are loved, accepted, included and encouraged to see our basic goodness.  So I try to do this with people who are down on themselves, living by their past, ashamed, defeated, hopeless.  I try to love them until they can love themselves.  It was done for me and now I must do it for others.