A scar is a mark that is left after an injury happens and the skin gets better but there is still a little mark left.  Some of you may already have scars and some of you won’t get a scar until you are older.  Elizabeth has a scar right here on her forehead, from that time she fell off the swing in the playground and went to the hospital.  Sometimes when Elizabeth looks in the mirror, she wishes that scar did not show so much, but, you know, most people don’t even notice it.  I’ll bet you didn’t even know it was there.

Now, the scar that Barabas has on his face, THAT is noticeable.  Sometimes people who don’t know Barabas, look at him and say “I wonder what THAT scar is from.”  It used to bother Barabas that he has such a noticeable scar, but you know, now he’s okay about it.  In fact, his friends don’t even see it anymore.  It is just a part of the boy they like.

I don’t think that Running Chairs has any scars yet. 

And Sam.  He doesn’t have any scars that you can see, but he does have a scar that you can not see.  He is happy to live with his dad, Mr.  Konde, but his mother ran away and joined the circus a few years ago, and that hurt Sam.  It didn’t leave a mark that shows.  And Sam’s scar, that you can’t see, has healed well.  God has ways to heal all the hurts in our bodies and in our hearts.  That is because God loves us.  We are called “Children of God.”

“Like I wonder if I will, like you know, get a scar?” said Running Chairs.  Probably she will. 

None of us know what will happen in the future, but whatever it is, it will probably leave some scars.  In today’s lesson it says “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we WILL BE has not yet been revealed.”

Oh!  The things we WILL be!  When we are God’s Children, as each of us are, we can heal the sick and we can feed the hungry and we can visit those in prison. We can be kind to our brothers and sisters.  We can honor our mother and father.  We can show God’s love in a hundred ways every day.  But in doing this, we will most likely wind up with a few scars.  It’s just the way things are.

Even Jesus has scars.  When we go to heaven and see Jesus, we will see His scars.  HIS scars are on his hands and feet.  When Jesus died on the cross for us, the nails left those marks.

This is an old statue of Jesus that I found in a closet upstairs here at church.  You can see that the statue is broken.  But I brought this here to show you how the artist made marks on the hands and the feet.  I’ll lay the statue down here so it doesn’t get more broken.   Even the sign in sign language for the word Jesus is pointing to your hands as if you are looking at the scars on the hands of Jesus. 

Lets bow our heads and close with a prayer:  Dear Jesus,  I’m glad that your scars are healed.  When I get hurt, please help heal me.  And help me, in God’s name, to help other people who get hurt so that their scars will heal too.   Amen

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