Reading Between the Lines

May 21, 2016

I remember the day the doctor told us more about the surgery. He would go in through the front of the neck cutting a two inch incision.

The front. A two inch incision. Would it look like someone slit my neck? Would the scar become the new focal point of my appearance? Fears swirled around in my head.

The doctor answered the questions before I had time to ask them. “I’ll cut along the natural crease on your neck. Overtime you’ll barely see it,” he assured me.

I’ve had “natural creases” on my neck for many years. They were something in college I wished I could wave a wand (or apply some powerful cream) and like magic they would disappear. Poof! They’re gone.

Fast forward many years into the future. The lines I once longed to make disappear will instead serve as a great magician. The scar from the neck incision will vanish into those lines.

Something I once hated have become something I am thankful for.

It’s just like God to take something that once brought sadness and transform it into a gift. He often turns the broken, hurting parts of our lives into something beautiful. He re-shapes. He transforms. He gives new meaning and life.

“If anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

– 2 Corinthians 5:17