We've all got bruises

I remember falling off my bike. It happened on the road right in front of my house when I was in elementary school. It was painful and bloody and it stung like you wouldn't believe.  I don't know if I was trying to do a fancy trick or just cruise up and down the road, but somehow I ended up knee to  ground, hands outstretched with my bike on top of me. I cried...a lot. And my knee bled... a lot. But, of course, I survived. The pain subsided, I got some neosporone and a dose of comforting from my  mother. Now I have a scar to remind me of that fateful day.
Every scar we wear provides a good, "Oh, wait till you hear this!" story. And lets be honest, who hasn't recounted an intense, edge-of-your-seat account of a situation gone wrong, a painful wound and the resulting scar it has left behind. We've all told the stories. We've all heard the stories. Living has given us these scars and has given us these tales to recount years after the pain of the fall has long ago subsided.
As we travel this road called life we are bound to get nicked up along the way - both physically and emotionally. We'll accumulate our fair share of bruises. Life pushes us around and knocks us down and when we pick ourselves up again we realize that we are a little black and blue and there are cuts and scraps that weren't there before.
In life we are going to fall off our bikes, so to speak. Our cuts heal and leave us with scars that remind us that even the most painful of wounds won't be open forever and suffering will end. The pain subsides but the story lives on as a reminder that suffering is not perpetual. No matter how much the cut may sting today it will not go on forever. Someday, probably not so very far away, our pain will be nothing more than a memory, only to be remembered when our stories are retold in great detail and we will marvel at the healing that has taken place.
I think God lets us have scars as a physical, observable reminder of the promise of healing. As we walk this road of life we can look to our bruised and scared knees and remember that God heals in good time. Whether it is physical or emotional we need to be reminded that it is not going to last forever and ever amen. It may sting and hurt like hell but it won't be that way forever.
Some days I need to look at that scar on my knee, or the one on my ankle, or the one on my ring finger and remember, this pain won't last forever. Whatever pain I'm dealing with today will be a scar in the future. Maybe it will take a few days to heal, maybe it will take a few years but the physical scars of my childhood are my ever present reminder that even the most punishing of falls ends up being a good story in the end.