Has Thou No Scar? by Amy Charmichael

Hast thou no scar? No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent, Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?
No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole;
can he have followed far
Who hast no wound
or scar?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I first read this poem 12 years ago in college, I was so struck by these words that I immediately copied them down in my journal. It strikes me still. No one wants to suffer. But suffering comes. And when it does, what is our response? Anger? Fear? Depression?

Is it praise that we are more like our Lord?

"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." Philippians 3:7-11