Meet Rick Wilcox

In our hearts, we can name all the ways we want to improve, each of the things we would love to change about ourselves and most of all, every source of pain from previous choices that have left their mark. For some. It might be crippling addictions. Others live with the scars of broken relationships. My own regrets are mostly from my early days as a young father when precious family time was too often sacrificed at the altar of business achievement.

Let me tell you a story.

When I was a little boy, I used to spend much of the summer at my grandparent’s ranch in East Texas. My memories of those days are filled with treehouses, picking fresh vegetables in the garden and catching fish on the tall banks of Caney Creek. It was also a precious time of growth when wisdom was imparted through stories that accompanied long walks with my grandfather.
One day he took me to a very special tree. He told me about his own childhood when the tree was young and used as a fence post. The barbed wire was pulled tight across its bark and the holding nails pierced deep. In most ways, that wasn't different from any other fence post, but there was one big exception. The other posts were dead pieces of wood, but this was a living tree, bound and scarred with its roots still in the earth.

Many trees die when they are used like this, but over the years this tree accepted the wires and the nails and continued to grow. Decades later, the tree grew around the wires and finally overcame them. Yes, the scars are still there, but the tree lives on - its scars bearing testimony to its endurance and love for life.

Here's the best part.

There are hundreds of trees on the ranch, but this one stands unique. It is remarkable now, not in spite of its scars but because of them. It is a testimony to the strength of life and the power of God in its roots. When I think of my own mistakes and the regrets of bad decisions, I remember the tree and resolve this: "I will take my scars and through God’s grace, turn them into a testimony of overcoming. I will live my life as I imagine it in my heart."

Life is about growth. Our scars distinguish us because they are a sign of healing. They are a testimony of grace that others can see, and by our lives find hope as well.