This old boy has been through a lot. What caused the gaping wound on the side of his trunk? I couldn't tell you. Perhaps a piece of heavy machinery drove too close years ago. Perhaps a grazing animal took a nibble at it when it was just a sapling. Perhaps... well, who knows! Regardless, something happened to leave it with an impressive scar. What's more, it is still surviving and thriving, just as its peers who are perfectly intact.
Many of us can attest to having scars on our lives from damage done in the past. Whether it's physical, emotional, or spiritual, each of us has been changed in some way by the negative circumstances we've been through. None of us can entirely avoid the rough times, and none of us can avoid the wounds. What is in our power to determine, though, is whether we flourish in spite of those scars. With the joy of the Lord in our lives, we are fully able to "count it all joy," to learn from the past, and to become stronger in preparation for that which we will face in the future.
"Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." -Hebrews 12:11
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