Name
Sometimes you hear a line in a song that just sticks with you for a long time…maybe even the rest of your life. One of those lines for me comes from the 90s song Name. A simple ballad by the band Goo Goo Dolls, John Rzeznik pours emotion out in front of a very simple chord structure. The song itself is a contemplative look back at ones youth and the longing to avoid the fate of “reruns all become our history”. More than that is asks if we are destined to follow the footsteps of our parents? How does what we were effect who we will be? The lyric that reached out and hung on to me for so long is this:
“Scars are souvenirs we never lose, and the past is never far.”
We all carry a scar or, if we are honest, several scars. Some scars we look at and we laugh. Some scars we look at and we cry. Some scars embarrass us and we wish we could hide them.
But while scars made fade with time, they are a part of us until the good Lord calls us home.
Scars are souvenirs we never lose.
Yet there is a set of scars that are eternal. They transitioned from Earth to heaven.
Wounds in the hands.
Wounds in the feet.
Wounds in the side.
The Christ you see will still bear the marks of His love for you. That is why the prophet Isaiah wrote in the 53rd chapter (ESV)
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
His wounds healed my wounds. The holes in His body made me whole. Those are powerful thoughts. A God that loved me so much that he bore the scars in my place. In fact, He knew that was going to be the cost of His love from the very beginning. You were created with nail scarred hands. When he stretched out the heavens and the earth he knew His creation would stretch Him upon a cross. He did so willingly. He did it because of you and He did it for me.
Because of that love, I am driven to tell everyone His name
Healed by His nail scared hands,
-Pastor Dan