Let your healing begin

Your scars are not something to be ashamed of.

Your healing will lead you to something new…

When a foreign military superpower executed Jesus as a terrorist, maybe part of what the whole story has been trying to show us is this principle of going in, not running away. He went all the way into death. He drew it in close, held it, faced it, owned it, even became it.

Jesus held death in his body, his heart, his spirit, and he healed from it. He showed us what it is to enter into the cave we fear, to find the treasure we seek (Joseph Campbell).

Jesus didn't obliterate death, he transcended it - he showed us what it is to face the things we think we cannot endure, and come out the other side, healed, whole, and, perhaps most surprisingly, when we think of Jesus, scarred. 

You've done this before, this whole healing thing.

Have a look at your body. Trace it with your eyes and your fingers... find those knots and grooves and nicks and pockets that testify to your healing ability. 

Scars are not things to be ashamed of. We prize the smooth, unblemished skin of babies; how soft and clean and pure it is, while we shame ageing skin, covered in the tattoos of the life we've lived. But it's all a prize.

Scars aren't signs of your weakness but of your ability to heal. They tell the story about how the wound that was once there, that bled and hurt and screamed and bruised, with care and love and grace, came back together and healed. 

Not back to the way it used to be... we don't heal to become who we were. We heal to become something new. 

Scars are the work of integration and are the signpost of resilience. 

Jesus' lived experience shows us what it is to enter into trauma, feel the pain, face it, find forgiveness, let it go, and rise, rise, rise, like a glorious phoenix from the ashes, into something healed and whole and new. Still you, still your wild and wondrous self and life, but also a version of you that you've never been before. 

And isn't that part of the miracle? That these deaths and pains and sufferings you experience mould and shape you? Become the chrysalis that transforms you? Are part of your becoming?

Sometimes the longing to be healed is that ache to go back, to make everything like it was before, to start again as if nothing had ever happened.

But dear one, you can never go back. Even though I know sometimes you wish you could, and you long for days gone by. I promise you: tomorrow will come, and today there is grace for you to be here, to find beauty, to face your fears, and to continue on, until you find the joy you thought you left way back in the days you long for. 

You've done this before.

You know how to heal. It's like muscle memory. You don't need to go back to find wonder and joy, comfort and peace. You only need to be here and allow yourself to remember. 

Let yourself heal.
Let the scars form.

Let them sing as loud as they can of the miracle you are, and always will be. 

Mindful Prompt: You know how to heal. Trace your body with your eyes and your fingers... find those knots and grooves and knicks and pockets that testify to your healing ability. Change your narrative around them by beginning to see them in a new light. They are strength, not weakness. They are beauty, not damage. They are a miracle, not a shame. 

Continued in the upcoming post-Easter series "Let The Healing Begin", this week with a subscription in the App.

Written by Liz Milani.
Instagram: @thepracticeco