Scars in Heaven: A 3-Day Devotional With Casting CrownsSample

The song "Scars in Heaven" actually was born within another song 14 years ago. On Casting Crowns’ album, The Altar and the Door, we recorded a song called "Wedding Day." As I wrote the bridge for "Wedding Day," out popped a line that immediately made me think, “Whoa. That’s big.”

“When the hand that bears the only scars in heaven touch her face, and the last tears that she’ll ever cry are finally wiped away….”

The thought of Jesus having the only scars in heaven was healing for me. It reminded me of two huge truths in the face of the death of loved ones. First, our ultimate healing does come, and God is not unaware of my grief and my pain, and He is with me in it. Second, the Spirit of Jesus who is with them is literally in me, and I can rest in that truth.

The struggle for many believers is that faith requires we believe in a place we’ve never seen before. Heaven is mostly abstract to us because we’ve never been there or seen a photo of it. We’ve seen God do great things here on Earth, but we have no physical reference point for our eternal home. We have a brief but almost incomprehensible description at the end of the book of Revelation, but for the human mind, we’re left mostly with sky-in-crayon pictures. We have no concept for it; it’s just somehow up there.

One moment somebody concrete whom you loved was right in front of you, and now they’re…there. Wherever that is.

Heaven has always been this beautiful, massive thought—until somebody we love goes there. Then we have more questions: “What is up there? What are they doing?” We don’t quite know what to do with it. That’s when God’s Word and steadfast faith come in. We have to allow the Holy Spirit to calm us, and we have to rest in Him. We may literally have to speak aloud that we’re going to trust in the Lord, no matter our feelings, no matter what.

The people we love are resting in Him if they knew Jesus, and we have to trust in His promises and rest in Him as well. To me, this song feels like a sigh. It’s like the release of giving ourselves the permission to admit that, yes, we’re hurting, and this isn’t going to go away in a day. It’s impossible to grieve and leave. But we have to accept the fact that our loved ones are with Jesus, and Jesus is in us, and we will see them again.