Scratches

Ever notice how every time you get something new, and then you scratched it or dropped it the first couple of times, it'd always make you wince?

Then after the intial shocks of abuse, you kinda get used to it and move on and live with those few scratches that marred its used to be perfect surface.

Where before, you used to be so careful with it, now you just tag it along and by and by it becomes a part of you; no longer warranting the kind of care and concern that you used to give it. But when it has run its course of product life span, you can't but help feel a little sad, especially if you've grown so attached to it.

Sometimes, it has grown so attached to you that people actually recognise the object as a part of you or an expression of who you are, your identity.

Yeah... at first you kinda wince when you look at those scratches but on second thought, it becomes pretty cool... it's not perfect anymore, but hey, at least those are YOUR scratches. You scratched them and you know where and when you've scratched it, so it is yours.

I'm actually talking about my handphone here.

When I first bought it, I even bought a small little pouch to carry it so I can protect it's plastic screen. By and by, I dropped it a few times, and now, due to wear and tear, this little piece of plastic at the bottom had also fallen out (turns out that Sony Ericsson is also cheap skate enough to use super glue to put things together)

At first I was quite sian about the scratches on my phone, but now, I even gave up carrying it in my pouch cos it's simply too troublesome to have to pull it out of my pocket, then out of the pouch to answer a call (many times that's how I missed a few calls)

Hey, when I look at it now, I tell myself, "hey, this is my phone man! this scratch here is proof that it's my phone and should anybody steal it, I can defintely identify it."

But through it all, I came up with this analogy.

Isn't this a lot like friendships?

When you're new friends, you tend to be ginger with the way you treat each other. Then by and by, as you get to know one another better, you start to rub shoulders and all the idiosyncracies begin to surface. That's when you start to get scratches (conflicts) If you're able to get past this stage, you begin to accept one another's weaknesses and sometimes, even appreciate them.

Then you start to reach the stage where you begin to think more alike and sometimes even take each other for granted. The relationship goes into a kind of auto-pilot mode.

But yet, when you think about it, if you're real good friends, you'll start to miss each other when you've been apart for too long. That's when you get together and talk about all those scratches you made and able to laugh over them.

These scratches in the end, kinda become the trophies and the milestones in your relationship.

It's kinda cool... yeah...

Jesus has several scratches on His body to show us He cares. One on each hand, One on both legs where the nails pierced right through and one on the side where the Roman soldier's spear pierced through.

We, with our sins put those scratches there.

But I know that when I see Him in heaven, after I've walked the valleys and the mountains of this life with Him, we'll both look at those scratches, mine and His and laugh at the stories of how they got there.