He screamed from the pain then passed out…

You could hear the sound of someone struggling and if you looked you would have seen two men holding another man down and a third man walking up to the one being held with a hot branding iron. The guy tried everything to get loose of their hold, but it did no good and he watched as the one with the hot branding iron walked closer. Someone tore his shirt open and the next thing the man knew the hot iron was on his chest. It was over his heart, burning deep into his skin with an image of a cross. He screamed from the pain then passed out.

You see the one being held down did many things that he was not proud of and he did them with the ones branding him. He had walked away from them and the life they were leading and had given his life and heart to the Lord. He tried to talk to them about the Lord, but they didn’t want to hear anything about God. Once the others found out the man no longer wanted to be a part of them, they decided to do something to him. Something that he would never forget, something that would remind him of them every time he saw it.

That was many years ago and the anger, the revenge he held onto, grew stronger as time went by. Every day he would see that image burned into his skin. He promised himself that one day he would find those who did it to him, and they would get what was coming to them. After many years the time finally came, and he was finally able to go searching for them. He knew the area where they hung out and knew in time, he would find each one.

The first stop was to find one of the two that held him down. He went to a neighborhood where he heard one of them was living but was told the man was now at a different address. He made his way to that address but was in shock once he got there. He got out of his car and started walking and eventually found the man. He stood there for a minute, then pulled a card out of his pocket and laid it on the ground before the man’s headstone then walked away.

Once he left there, he then started hunting down the next man. He asked questions but was getting no answers until someone told him where he could find the man, so off he went. He opened the door and walked through the doorway not sure what would be next. There the guy was, sitting there, staring out a window, they told him the man’s mind had faded years ago. He walked up and stared at the man for a minute, then reached up by his chest pulling a card out of his pocket and put it in the guy’s hands then walked away.

He then drove to the home of the one who held the hot branding iron in his hand and branded him for life. The one he had the most anger and hatred toward. It was getting dark, so he pulled over a few houses down from the man’s house. He watched as the man who had been working on his truck lowered the hood then went inside. He waited until the lights went out then he walked up to the front door. He reached out and just for a second he thought of turning the doorknob but then he reached into his pocket. He pulled out a card sliding it under the door then went back to his car and drove off, never to return.

Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.

What was on the cards was a cross that was on fire and the following words “I Forgive You.”

You see he carried the pain, the anger around for years but then one day everything changed. His life changed when he became one of the saved and he gave his heart to the Lord. The scar that once only reminded him of anger and pain now reminds him of his Lord and savior Jesus. The scar is no longer something to be ashamed of but something that he got through his path in life. You see he knows one day that scar will be gone, and he will have a glorified body once he is in heaven.

Over time we all have scars, some you can see, some you can’t. Don’t let the scars of life control you and maybe make you into someone you really don’t want to be. Instead, hand everything over to the Lord. He will heal all your scars, even the ones you hold in your heart.

Mark 11:25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”