A Mark of Healing

I caught myself staring at a scar the other day.
Something maybe you would look at and think how ugly it is.
But looking at it, I thought,
"That looks good. It's healthy. It has mended well."
My mind summoned up its beginning,
and I remembered the events leading up to its making.
How the unhealth that eventually ended in an open gaping wound
was so much worse than this healthy distortion of my skin.

And I thought about how we judge things, and how He judges things.
Because to an untrained person,
maybe that slight discolored swelling with unbroken skin
looks healthier than a draining incision.
But the incision has a future of life and healing,
and the swelling has nothing but death in its path.

And don't we sometimes look at each other and judge each other wrongly?
We see the surgeon's wound, and judge the patient dying.
Or we see the unbroken skin, and judge the patient well.
Or we see the scar, and we don't think,
"How beautiful! She's healthy and whole and functional!"
And the one with the unbroken skin, we pronounce unspotted,
though they are being eaten up by uncleanness.

The scars of healing are not unclean. 
"But if the bright spot stay in its place, and be not spread, 
it is the scar of the boil; 
and the priest shall pronounce him clean."
Leviticus 13:23

"Thou art all fair, my love; And there is no spot in thee." 
Song of Solomon 4:7