Last week, I wrote about my journey of healing from my heart episode this past winter and how thinking about my PTSD experience like a burn on my leg has been a helpful way for me to conceptualize my experience. I ended by saying that, someday, my mental scar will be all that remains of my experience. But that got me thinking: will there be scars in eternity?
This is admittedly a speculative question. But as I thought about this, one scripture came to mind: Luke 24.39.
After His resurrection, Jesus appears to His disciples and they’re not sure who He is. But He says to them, “Look at my hands and feet. It is I myself!” Jesus expects His disciples to know Him by His scars from the crucifixion. But those scars aren’t debilitating anymore. They’re not holding Him to the cross anymore. They’re part of His story, absolutely. But they no longer limit His resurrected body.
So will there be scars in eternity? Luke 24 seems to say yes. But they’ll be scars that won’t disrupt our lives anymore. And I think this reality matters for how we live our lives.
Following Jesus isn’t a way to escape what’s happened to you. We won’t leave everything about ourselves and our experiences on earth behind at the Resurrection of the dead. Our scars will still be with us. They’ll just be redeemed and restored. The pain that those scars brought will be finished and done. But the parts of who we are forged by those scars won’t magically disappear.
In this way, scars seem a beautiful reminder of the hope of eternity for those who follow King Jesus. Because in Him, someday all of our pain will be the past. It will still have forged us. But all that will remains are our scars.
Pursuing Veritas 