Sacred Scars (From Michelle's Blog)

My sister inlaw wrote the following post and I loved it so much that I wanted to share it with people who read my blog.  I loved it that much! 

For those of you who may not know her, or all that she has gone through, here's a quick background.  She is the mother to an angel baby named Gavin.  Gavin was here on earth for a short time before he was called back home.  Being such a special and valiant spirit, Gavin never had to feel anything but love in this life.  He didn't have to know what it felt like to be picked last on a team.  He didn't have to know what it felt like to feel lonely.  He never cried over a broken heart or felt the sorrows of the world.  All he knew was love, he was surrounded by it! 

To become a mother, our bodies must make a great deal of sacrifice in order to bring our children into this world.  We get together in our circles and compare loosened skin (you know what I mean--right?), widened hips, and even stretch marks.  This post that Michelle wrote gave me greater insight as to what it means to be a mother.  Is it possible that even stretch marks are a blessing... I think so. 

Christ carries us on the palms of his hands, and on his feet. These, are sacred scars. We just had Stake Confrence thise week and the Stake President made a comparison that changed my way of thinking. He spoke of Christ and the scars that he carries, to remind each of us, of the sacrifice that HE made for us. Then he spoke of how in this day in age we are so concerned with how we look that some of the more important things go unnoticed. We want to change things that maybe we should actually be proud of. We want to erase things, sacred scars, that we could hold dear instead. He then compared Mothers and the sacred scars they carry on their belly's, to that of Christ. We carry these sweet children in out belly's and sometimes they sign thier names across our belly's with red lines that most of the world would consider ugly. But they are sacred. Stretch marks. They are the battle scars that our bodies waged as we grew the precious bodies that would hold these fabulous little spirits. Truly SACRED scars.

I hated my stretch marks right after I had Gavin. They were so ugly and red and obvious. But then when I gave my sweet Gavin back, they became something so diffrent. They became evidence that he was real, that he lived, that he loved me, and that at one point we were so close, we were literally one. He in me. One. Those stretch marks became his everlasting letter to me. "Mom, I love you. Thank you for bringing me here. Together for Eternity. GAVIN". And when the Stake President made that comparison, I guess it confirmed what I already felt. These are sacred Scars. Scars that I treasure. Thank you Gavin, for leaving a little "love you" note behind.