Engraved With Scars

“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people." - Jeremiah 31:33

Do you long for God to fulfill

this word in your life?

Be careful how you answer,

it may depend on how he writes.

The other day, while lamenting my old soul, my spiritual fingers caressed the scars on my heart, and I grieved the hardships of this life:

How do we "consider it pure joy"?

Where is joy in such pain?

The treasure in darkness is not plain.

Each trial had cut me deeply, an inscription on my tablet.

Written forever by the cutting and removal.

Not pleasant, hard work.

And when you're in the trial, all you can see is what has been taken.

All you can feel are the grooves and crevice of loss.

But long after,

When stepping back to observe the totality of the mosaic,

Epiphany resounds like a symphony of light:

These scars bear familiar resemblance -

The handwriting of God.

As a sculptor carves the stone, and a vintner prunes the vine,

So our scars bear the seal and sign of the Divine.

I will not soon forget:

"In repentance and rest is your salvation,

In quietness and trust is your strength"

Engraved with scars,

This Word on my heart.

As a sculptor carves the stone, and a vintner prunes the vine,

So our scars bear the seal and sign of the Divine.

"He who did not spare his own Son,

But gave him up for us all."

This Word written on his hands,

Now engraved in his side.

These scars consider it joy,

So pure joy can be mine.

As a sculptor carves the stone, and a vintner prunes the vine,

So our scars bear the seal and sign of the Divine.

APK