To the girl who came up to the counter at work today with scars on your arms,
I have them too.
I understand.
You're not alone.
I've been where you've been.
I've had those nights too. Those nights that choke you of your hope and suck away all the light and leave you, seemingly, with only one option...
I know.
I know.
I know and my heart hurts for you and I wanted to give you a hug and tell you that I'm with you, sister, I am with you in this battle...
But hey, girl with scars on your arms?
There is hope...
I don't know how long you've been fighting. I don't know what it is in your life that has caused you to do that to yourself. I dont know your heart. I don't know who or what has hurt you. I don't know what you carry with you.
I don't know you.
But hey, girl?
Jesus does.
Dear girl, dear, dear girl who carries scars with you in your heart and on your body, scars just like mine...
Jesus has scars too.
The Son of God, whose birth we're celebrating here in a couple days? He came to earth and he bled and hurt and took the sorrow and sin of the entire world right on His body and His shoulders and His heart...and His arms...and hands and feet and head..and died...so we don't have to hurt ourselves.
You don't have to hurt yourself...
Dear girl, do you know that there is hope?
Do you know that it's going to be okay?
It's going to be okay.
Do you know that there is a Love holding you close to His chest and shielding you when it feels like your whole world is crashing down at your feet?
I've tried it all and maybe you have too. The preventative projects and tactics. Drawing a butterfly on your arm, drawing a semicolon to remind yourself not to give up, pretending that the body part you want to draw a blade across belongs to someone that you love because you sure as hell don't love yourself...
Dear girl...my heart cries for you. I've been there and I wouldn't wish it on anyone and it makes me so sad that you've been there too...
But, friend, do you know that you are loved by God?
You are loved by God...
Do you know that He is not far from you?
Do you know that He weeps with you?
Do you know that you are not undeserving and incapable of being loved like He loves you?
Could you believe with me for a second that He took your punishment 2,000 years ago so that you don't have to punish your precious, beautiful body?
You don't have to do that.
Here's the thing, though, I'm sure you've been told all these things before. I'm sure it gets old and I'm sure that you feel like you take up enough space the way it is, without giving God one more thing to worry about.
But oh, dear girl, the best thing I ever learned was that God is not bound by human emotions and that His love and faithfulness to us is not dependent on our love and faithfulness to Him...
It's just not.
Breathe. He's not leaving. He created you in full knowledge of your messiness. Psalm 103 says that He knows your frame and He remembers that you are feeble, human, unsteady and easily spooked. We spook ourselves pretty easily, yeah?
You can't scare Him away.
Precious girl, I pray that you embrace the love held out to you so freely by a Father Who loves you to death...and then back to life again...
He can love you back to life again.
And His love is holding us, both of us, right now, so close...
There's a baby that came to earth 2,000 years ago, born to a virgin teen in a dirty stable. They named him Emmanuel. God is with us.
You will never walk alone, dear girl.
God is with you.
Take it from someone who knows. You are very seen. And very known. And very protected. And very loved, always, forever, very loved.
He's got you, sister. And me. In His hands.
Praying that you will know Him, as you are fully known, and that you will find comfort and peace and rest in His own scars that He took for you, because of His great love for you.
Merry Christmas. ❤
