The Nail-Scarred Hands

Friday, February 13, 2026: 10:00AM

This post will be about women’s cycles and things of that nature- you’ve been warned. 🙂

It amazes me how God designed women’s bodies. As a young teenager, I was so embarrassed by my cycle. As a young adult, it felt like an inconvenience. As a newlywed, it felt like a mystery. As a first-time mom, it was a marvel. And now in this loss, it is a miracle- but also a very painful reminder.

It is amazing that a week ago, I felt clear-headed, physically strong, and emotionally stronger.

And then my first period happened since losing Maggie. At first, I was relieved. I was marveling at all my body could do- the miracle of it all. After something unexplainable, abnormal, and “unfixable” happened inside of my body, a familiar part of my life as a woman had returned like clockwork.
But then 3 days in, the cramps intensified to the point it felt like I was in labor. Writhing on the couch, medicine not touching the terrible pain, my whole body cold from the hormonal shifts and the pain. It completely surprised me. And all of a sudden, my emotions were right back to giving birth to my sleeping baby. To this loss. To what happened. I felt undone.

That all makes sense to me. Of course I am triggered. This time of the month was a physical reminder of the pain I experienced delivering Maggie. Losing her. Saying goodbye to her. And I’m not sure if there will come a time where it doesn’t remind me of what we went through. But I know that eventually, it won’t be so physically shocking for me.

My pain reminded me of what I had been through and brought me to tears. It was therapeutic to cry out to God. I knew He was with me, as was my amazing husband. It also reminded me to continue giving grace to myself. Even though some aspects of my life are slowly returning to “normal”, I have been through physical and emotional trauma, intense hormonal shifts, grief over the death of a child- all while trying to shepherd our kids with life happening all around us. It is important for me to recognize this- because I can forget the effects of trauma when I am feeling okay.

My physical pain brings out a deep emotional unraveling that can only be soothed by the Lord. It is to Him I turn and in Him where I take comfort.

All this pain makes me think of the cross. It makes me think of the scars Jesus still bears- even in Heaven. The pain He endured for us. My pain here mirrors a small glimpse into what He went through sacrificially to save me. To save Maggie. A mother’s sacrifice of her body in every way mirrors that. As I look at my broken body, puffy and not feeling the way I want it to at times, I pray that Jesus would help me to remember that. To remember Him.

I love reading Charles Spurgeon when my brain can handle it. Such rich writing! I came across this resource as I pondered Jesus’ scars.

This quote encouraged me greatly:

“But next he teaches us his sympathy with us in our suffering. ‘There,’ says he, ‘see this hand! I am not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of your infirmities. I have suffered, too. I was tempted in all ways like as you are. Look here! there are the marks—there are the marks. They are not only tokens of my love, they are not only sweet forget-me-nots that bind me to love you for ever. But besides that they are the evidence of my sympathy. I can feel for you. Look—look—I have suffered. Have you the heart-ache? Ah, look yon here, what a heartache I had when this heart was pierced Do you suffer, even unto blood wrestling against sin? So did I. I have sympathy with you.’” (Spurgeon, The Wounds of Jesus)

The Bible says He is well-acquainted with grief, our Suffering Savior. He is the Man of Sorrows. Who better to go to in a grief so weighty?

I have never fully pondered until today the significance of Jesus still bearing the scars from the cross on His hands and sides in Heaven. Think about it- He will be the only one with scars in Heaven. The Bible promises us that there will be no more tears, no more pain or ailments in Heaven. I imagine scars are part of that.

His scars are a comfort to us, a reminder that we are not alone in our suffering. They also forever remind us of the depths of His love for us. Spurgeon writes once more:

“Again, Christ wears these scars in his body in heaven as his ornaments. The wounds of Christ are his glories, they are his jewels and his precious things. To the eye of the believer Christ is never so glorious, never so passing fair, as when we can say of him, “My beloved is white and ruddy,” white with innocence, and ruddy with his own blood. He never seems so beautiful as when he can see him as the rose and the lily; as the lily, matchless purity, and as the rose, crimsoned with his own gore. We may talk of Christ in his beauty, in divers places raising the dead and stilling the tempest, but oh! there never was such a matchless Christ as he that did hang upon the cross. There I behold all his beauties, all his attributes developed, all his love drawn out, all his character expressed in letters so legible, that even my poor stammering heart call read those lines and speak them out again, as I see them written in crimson upon the bloody tree. Beloved, these are to Jesus what they are to us; they are his ornaments, his royal jewels, his fair array.” (Spurgeon, The Wounds of Jesus)

His scars represent the pain He endured that brought beauty, love, redemption, sacrifice, and light. Because of this, so can mine. Thank You, Lord, that death brings way to life because of You.

Isaiah 63:7; 9 prophesies of Jesus:
“I will make known the Lord’s faithful love and the Lord’s praiseworthy acts, because of all the Lord has done for us- even the many good things He has done for the house of Israel, which He did for them based on His compassion and the abundance of His faithful love…In all their suffering, He suffered, and the angel of His presence saved them. He redeemed them because of His love and compassion; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of the past.”

Paul, who was imprisoned and beaten multiple times, ultimately martyred for his faith, wrote in Romans 8:18:
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.”

He is my steady anchor, my shelter from the storm, this Man with the nail-scarred hands.

Thank You, Jesus, for redeeming my pain.