By Patra Mueller, Family Life Minister

“Your wounds matter.” Recently a friend told me that those three simple words changed the trajectory of her life. No one had ever given her permission to acknowledge and address her own pain from the past. She had been so busy taking care of others while her own stories from childhood were safely tucked away deep in her soul. Thankfully she has begun the healing process by naming & remembering those painful places and is experiencing freedom like never before.

Perhaps you can relate to this. Everyone’s story is different. But, as I have listened to people over the years, there is a common theme: we all have been wounded in some shape or form. The powerful message of Holy Week is that Jesus was willing to experience a brutal death on a cross so that all people can experience forgiveness and the promise of eternal life. As we receive the gift of forgiveness, we can forgive others and the healing process begins.

Paul expressed it like this: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, you are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come… (2 Corinthians 5:17). Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, healing and restoration is available to each of us. Healing is a process that starts by having the courage to remember and rest in the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit as you walk into the painful places of the past, claiming the promises of Scripture each step of the way.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5