When I was younger, I had horrible skin. My pigments were literally all over the place, in taunting patches, with dry areas here and there. So you could imagine the ugly duckling syndrome during my adolescent years. Thankfully, my spirit wasn’t crushed all throughout middle/high school despite my insecurities. I really have to thank my youth group and some school friends who looked past the surface of my skin. And I really clung to biblical promises that your heart means more than how healthy your hair is or how proportional your features are.
My daughter has slight eczema, so there are some patchy areas in her skin that tend to itch so much, resulting in her over-zealousness to scratch it until it bleeds. So some days, she has deep scabs and days when I feel so helpless in alleviating her itchiness. Sometimes, we both find ourselves so frustrated that we end up crying over my anger and disappointment. I always ask her why she’s crying and she responds, “because you’re not happy.” Then I end up explaining that I’m not happy because I see all her deep wounds that I know will take some time in healing.
It’s a cycle we go through sometimes.
But those moments, after the frustration, I apologize to her, tell her that I love her through her tears and ask her if I can pray for her. She always says yes.
She sits quietly no matter how long my prayers get. And she usually asks, “will Jesus heal my boo boo?” I always tell her yes. I don’t say it because it’s a simple answer or because it’s the right thing to stir her faith, but I say it because after 29 years of having my own scars, I know it to be true. I say it because I know the answer will never change even when I am 60 and she is 35.
So today, after examining her healing wounds, she asked me if I was happy and I said yes. Then she said, “thank you Jesus.”
Instantly, I figured she was thanking Jesus for healing her deep scar, but now that I think of it, with a heart like my daughter, I think she was thanking Jesus for healing mine.
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Psalm 147:3
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
