Scars of His Love

He sat outside,
the heat of the day beating into his skin.
The wall at his back was rough
digging into his tunic.
The ground where he sat was hard
Parched.

As he had been
Eight days ago,
when he had left the other ten,
When he had struck out alone,
in desperation.
He had been empty,
scarred,
and he had sought emptiness.

Upon his return to the Upper Room
he had been told that his Master had returned
Risen from the dead.
That he had been alive and with them.

The news had been like
tales of rain in a drought,
thoughts of healing for a leper,
Unbelievable.
Unacceptable.
Unimaginable.
The scars of loss had been too parched
to admit any possibilities of grace.

He had held on to the loss.
It had been safer.
And he had been unwilling
to hear the sound of anything else.

Now, today, Thomas sat outside
having encountered the risen Lord.
He had seen the Rabbi’s scars,
Heard his voice.
And Thomas had believed.

He stared at his own hands,
remembering the look of the Master’s hands
where the nails had pierced the flesh.
The scars of the Master’s love
had left him breathless,
and finally,
he had opened his heart
To the flood of the grace offered.

He had believed.
“My Lord and my God.”

Inspiration from John 20:24-28 and from the line, "The scars of your love, they leave me breathless" from the song Rolling in the Deep by Adele.