Scott Freeman

Scars and Healing

April 2nd, 2008 | by Scott |

When we moved to Oklahoma one of the first things we did en route was to stop at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, site of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building. I was struck by the simplistic beauty of the location and the power of the inscription on each gate:

We come here to remember those who were killed,

 

Those who survived and those changed forever.

 

May all who leave here know the impact of violence.

 

May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.

One of the survivors of the bombing was a woman named Susan Urbach. She was badly wounded in the attack when her office window exploded inward and the ceiling collapsed. Her description was this:

There is like a half-swastika kind of wound that started underneath the eye and goes down to my laugh line, several large lacerations that went from like my ear to my chin.  My ear was totally cut in half all the way through the cartilage…

 

 

She ultimately underwent four hours of surgery and her stitches would measure out four feet in length.

 

When she went to church that first Sunday after the bombing her appearance was so disfigured that a little girl began to scream when she saw Susan.  The wounds were so fresh that it was frightening.

 

When she appeared and gave a gripping testimony (read it here)at the trial of Timothy McVeigh two years later the wounds were gone but the scars still bore evidence of what she had lived through. But it was her words that spoke the clearest:

”Any scar tells a story,” she told the jury. ”And the story it tells is a story of a wounding and a healing that goes along with that wounding. And the more deeply you’re wounded, the more healing that must come your way,” she said. ”I mean, you don’t get your scar unless you’ve been wounded and you have been healed. And I’ve got my scar.”

 

That is a profound statement of forgiveness and understanding. But the emphasized portion speaks volumes. To receive the scars of your wounding means that you must first heal.

When the wounds are physical, that means treating and cleaning the wound, warding against infection and proper dressing. Nursing the wounds involves care and attention. Healing can not occur if the wounds are left untreated.

It is the same for other types of wounds as well. I met a lady yesterday whose house burned to the ground on Saturday morning. That’s why they weren’t at our soccer game on Saturday. That is a wounding. Healing cannot take place alone.

 

We, as the church, must be in the healing business, realizing that there are people in our midst who bear the weight and pain of the savageries of their lives. We can never remove the scars of the past. That takes time. But in a loving and compassionate environment we can speed that process and give space for true healing to occur.

 

That is one of the reasons that I find the admonition of Jesus in Matthew 5:7 to be so telling. The majority of times when Matthew used the word merciful it is in reference to healing.

 

Being merciful, in the first gospel, is not an attitude. It is what you do. It involved compassion, forgiveness and healing.  It’s not a feeling but an action.

Susan Urbach healed from the attack.  It took time.  At one point they discovered a two and a half inch piece of glass in a portion of her back previously thought unharmed from the explosion.

She still bears the scars, less noticeable but scars nonetheless.  But, to her, they are more testament to the healing and not the wounds.

May we, as the church, fully realize that to be merciful we must provide the care, attention and love that the social, moral, emotional and spiritual wounds of those we come into contact  requires.

—————-
Now playing: Various - Give My Life Away - Michael Olson
via FoxyTunes