Broken Hearts Are Meant To Scar Not Callus

     Please, God, when my heart is broken, help it scar not callus…  

     If you are a human being, who walks the planet Earth, and are at least old enough to be in middle school, then it’s pretty safe to bet my bottom dollar that your heart also knows the pain of being broken.   Regardless, the extent or depth of the fracture, not just physical but also emotional, mental and, even, spiritual suffering occurs.   I don’t proclaim to possess the market on heartbreak, but neither have I been spared its cutting sword throughout my life’s journey.   We live in a fallen world where Satan’s strategy is that if he can break a heart, then maybe a broken soul can follow.

     I was 15 years old, sitting in Sister Ivo’s high school Biology class, when my mind wandered on subject but off course.   Class discussion was on how the body heals through the formation of scar tissue.   At the time, my feet were trying to break in a new pair of skating boots.   My open blisters were only no longer a pain when, with time, covered with hardened skin.   The class bell rang before I had the chance to ask Sister Ivo if this covering was scar tissue.   I remember that day vividly, but years passed before the wisest teacher of all, God our Almighty Father, brought enlightenment to my wondered question.   Upon His revelation was born my prayer: please, God, when my heart is broken, help it scar not callus.

     Both scars and calluses take time to grow and soothe a break.   Herein, ends their significant similarity.   It’s their difference that really matters for a healing outcome.  

     Calluses are thick and hardened skin that covers up broken or tender skin.   Scars are more like a glue that binds cuts and brokenness back together.   Calluses are numbed, unfeeling areas whose effect is providing insensitivity to what they cover.   Scars blend into surrounding areas, soften, and often, fade away as time moves onward.   Calluses, when soaked by water, become soft and fall prey to worldly scrapes and scratches.   Scars, in the deluge of a storm, are stronger than original skin, producing outer, and inner, security for which our lives pray.  

     Our broken hearts are meant to scar not callus.   A calloused heart is hardened, insensitive and unable to feel both God’s and fellow Christians’ love keeping it alive.   However, every corner of a heart can be scarred, but its center will always keep flowing with love.        In a perfect world, hearts would not be broken.   The world in which we live is anything but perfect.   So, yes, our hearts will be broken.   However, our choice is whether to hold our broken hearts together by scars or calluses. May we all understand the difference and beg God for scars, not calluses.