We all have scars. Some of them are on our bodies, others are on our hearts.
This Sunday, we will be blessed by having our Elder Kerry Gregoric reflect with us on scars. Just like us, Jesus had scars. And when he was resurrected, his scars were still there. They didn’t disappear in his resurrected body – no, the marks of hurt and abuse were still there. Neither did Jesus hide them away – no, he invited people to touch them.
As Kerry will point out on Sunday, only Thomas touched Jesus’s scars. It was only he who put his fingers into the holes in Jesus’s hands and his hands into his side. Thomas was willing to get close to the pain that Jesus had been through; to truly bear witness to it, in the most intimate way.
I wonder, how much are we willing to touch the scars of each other? And how much are we willing to show them? Sometimes we feel ashamed about what we have been through, and we feel scared to witness the pain of another. But when we are willing to open up and share the scars that track across our bodies and hearts, this is where healing can really take place.
When we hide our hurts and flinch away from others’ pain, we limit the flow of God. We hunker down into ourselves, unable to connect with others. But when we reach out and touch each others’ painful places, and open our tender places up to touch as well, we restore the flow of life. We can cry together, and then laugh together, and that is where God is really present.
Can we do that for each other, in this community? And when we do, how might God flow through our collective body?
Image by Roman Trifonov on Unsplash