True Story: The Second Side of Scars

A young boy sits on the floor looking at his fingers. On his right pointer and middle fingers, he sees what looks to be evidence of a cut from long ago. Or maybe it was a burn from grabbing something red hot out of a fire. Or off the stove. What happened? How did he get that scar? When the boy goes to ask his parents where the scar came from, nobody really knows how he got it. How could he not have known how he got it? Where were the grownups when it happened? Well, that young boy was me. I am adopted from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and how I got the scar on my right pointer and middle fingers is unknown to me to this day. I will probably never know how I got that scar for the rest of my life. Which is the end of the story. Or is it?

Just like there are two sides to a coin, so there are two sides to every story. Proverbs 17:18 says that a story sounds true until you hear the second side. Every scar has two sides to its story. The first side of the story is the injury. It is how you got it and what happened to you to get that scar. The second side of the story is the healing. It is taking into account the lesson you got from the scar and how you healed from that scar. Every scar has a story, whether it be big or small; a story that has two sides. Christian believers should view scars as a beautiful thing because they are used by the Lord for healing people. Jesus still had his scars after His resurrection, when he could have healed them easily. Since Jesus still had his scars, they must be good, and Christians should expect to also have their scars in heaven.

Merriam-Webster defines a scar as a mark remaining (as on the skin) after injured tissue has healed. So basically, a scar happens after someone has had an injury, but the body has gone through the healing process. Scars can happen in lots of different ways, but they all have one thing in common: they start out badly with damage to the body. After the damage is done, the body begins an amazing process to repair the damage. According to the American Academy of Dermatology Association, “to repair damage that goes deeper than the first layer, your body makes a tissue that’s thicker than your skin. This thicker tissue often becomes a scar.” The process happens in several different steps. In the first step, the body starts a process called hemostasis, which is when the blood vessels constrict, and platelets clot to stop bleeding. Inflammation is the next step into which white blood cells clean the area causing redness, swelling, and pain. The third step is proliferation. The wound is filled with new cognitive tissue (granulation) and new skin grows over it (epithelialization). The final last step is maturation, when the collagen in the wound matures, gains strength and closes the wound completely. It is a slow process that takes time and does not just happen over night. The fact that the process takes time does not mean it is boring. In fact, it is remarkable to consider that God designed the process to start on its own.

When we understand the amazing healing process that happens to form a scar, it would appear to be God’s handiwork at play. One can consider the other options that God could have come up with after our body suffers a wound. He could have left the wound as is. Can we imagine if the wounds were still open, bleeding, painful, and open to infection? Without the second half of the process, we would just know the pain without it being healed. Some people are stuck in the first stage of this healing process, but have not moved to the healing side yet. They are stuck on the first side, scared of how they will ever live with their wounds still bleeding. They are stuck on the first side with their wounds still bleeding. They need help and encouragement to start down that road.

On the other hand, God could have chosen to erase the wounds completely. He could have made the healing process scarless. There would be no evidence of the first part of the story, the painful part, which might sound good, but it also leaves no evidence that God did any healing.  There is also no evidence of the second side of the story. No evidence that God brought healing. When one looks at it, if God wants to show his glory and beauty in the ugly, then people must be able to bear scars. To show God’s love and healing through the story, it is best if there is solid evidence that the story happened. It is important to understand the reason why God created scars to happen after injury.

There are many different types of scars a person can have on their body; these are physical scars. Examples of injuries that lead to physical scars are burns, cuts, and other trauma to the skin. A burn happens when something at an extreme temperature, either hot or cold, touches the skin. It damages the skin cells. Something similar can happen when a harsh chemical, like an acid, touches the skin. Damage can also happen with electrical currents that damage the skin. A cut happens when something sharp slices open the flesh of the skin. There are many other types of damage that can happen to the skin, like crushing, scraping, friction, and an allergy. All of these types of wounds to the skin go through the same healing steps to form a scar. Just like things do not always go your way in life, wounds sometimes do not heal into a scar properly.

In the book Heal Your Wound by Alvin May, the author gives examples of many situations in which the wound may not heal well. Even though the process of wound healing is not something humans can make happen, there are things that a person can do if their scar or wound does not heal immediately. May offers many pieces of advice to help with wound healing. “As a wound care specialist. I believe a holistic approach that embraces the entire well-being of the patient is at the very center of fostering wound health and wound healing” (pg 72). Preventing contamination, offloading and elevation, clearing debris, dressing the wound, nutrition, hydration, and exercise are all things that a person can consider and change if their wound is not healing as it should.

On its website, The American Burn Association also talks about wound healing. It explains that the thickness of the burn impacts the outcome. The scar depends on how deep the burn is; the deeper the wound, the bigger the scar that forms. It also talks about how to take care of the burn and to keep it from getting infected. If the wound gets infected, it can lead to a bigger scar.

It is clear that when there is a physical injury to the skin, there is a remarkable process that takes place to bring healing, but skin wounds are not the only type of wounds that leave scars on people. People should consider that there are different types of injuries that lead to scars. Some can be seen by the physical eye, while others can not. Scars on the skin are the easy ones to see, but there are others that people should consider. Injuries can happen inside the body that are not visible to the naked eye. Examples of these are damaged organs, internal bleeding, ligament tears, tearing your ACL, breaking your bones, and brain damage. These injuries also have a similar healing process, which, after healing, can leave scars. These kinds of wounds cannot be seen on the surface, but can usually be seen with special tools like X-ray and CAT scans.

Finally, there are the other types of scars that people do not often mention, which cannot be seen even with special technology: emotional trauma.  This leaves scars, too. According to Mental Health America, “Emotional and psychological trauma is an emotional response to a distressing event or situation that breaks your sense of security. Traumatic experiences often involve a direct threat to life or safety, but anything that leaves you feeling overwhelmed or isolated can result in trauma.”

When someone has an experience that causes emotional trauma, it does affect the body even if it does not leave scars. It causes the nervous system to be overwhelmed, and then it stays in high alert. Many people notice this in having a clenched jaw, or feeling like they have a knot in the stomach, or complaining that they feel like they have a tight chest. Being like this in high alert is like a fight or flight feeling, and all the body’s muscles do not relax. It is like the damage is to the emotions, but a person feels it in their body.

Emotional trauma not only causes physical symptoms, but it also leaves scars. The scars can not be seen on the human body, but rather on the soul. It leaves a mark on it in which it will need to heal, but it is much different than a scar that people get on the human body. Like a physical scar, it is caused by something or someone, but unlike a physical scar, it does not start healing immediately. Emotional trauma wounds heal differently, and some take a long time to heal over. There are many things people do to help heal from emotional trauma, like special therapy and medication.

Even after an emotional wound heals, some are reawakened through PTSD. PTSD stands for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is a treatable mental health condition that is triggered by an experience or witnessing a traumatic, life-threatening event. (Mayo Clinic) PTSD can affect many things in a person's life: how they think, act, feel, and even their voice of opinion. Memories of what happened after can have a great effect on a person, even after getting help.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can have a massive effect on the person. Some that can linger on for years. Specialists at Mayo Clinic say, “Over time, PTSD symptoms can vary in how severe they are. You may have more PTSD symptoms when you're generally stressed or when you come across reminders of what you went through, including the same time of year when a past traumatic event happened.” The effects of PTSD can linger for years later and can have effects on different areas of a person’s life. Buckley, in his article called “Information processing and ptsd: A review of the empirical literature” in Clinical Psychology Review, talks about how studies show that trauma can affect the brain, including IQ changes and depression after experiencing PTSD. Physical and emotional wounds may be different and heal differently, but in the end, it is crucial to consider that they both can have lasting effects on their patients.

For scars that are both physical and emotional, there is another factor that impacts their healing, which is whether the cause of the wound was intentional or not. Was the injury a simple accident? Or did someone mean to cause the injury? PLOS ONE published an article: Intentional and Non-Intentional Traumatic Events. The study showed that there is a difference between how a person heals after trauma, depending on whether the trauma was intentional or accidental. The website goes on to talk about the “multiple studies across different disaster types similarly found differences in rates of PTSD between intentional and non-intentional disasters.” The article then goes on to say that “the overall public health burden of PTSD was greater in those exposed to intentional traumatic events.” This study used assault as the intentional cause and other injuries as the non-intentional cause. The study showed that if the trauma was unintentional, the PTSD went down from 30 percent to 14 percent. On the other hand, if the trauma was intentional, the PTSD went up from 12 to 23 percent. One can learn from this article that an emotional wound caused on purpose takes longer to heal. This is similar to how deeper cuts and burns of the skin take longer to heal into a scar.

After healing and the forming of a scar is complete,  one may think that the story is over. It’s not, in fact it has just begun. The scar now has an impact on that person’s life. Physical scars can be seen by others, which leads to the question, “How do other people in society view scars?”

People judge themselves and everyone in their normal everyday life. More than likely, they feel pressured that they must look normal like everyone else. This kind of peer pressure has been around for a long time. In today’s world, social media now plays a big role in this, with models, pop stars, and everyday men and women showing off their physical appearances. In our culture today, physical appearance has become an idol. People often use their own physical appearance to determine if they feel valuable. In the same way, they also determine the value of others by their appearance.

In addition to physical appearance having all this value, it is also used as someone’s first impression of another person. People often assume how a person will act or be like based on their appearance, when in reality, they may be the exact opposite. A lot of people are judged based on their scars. Because a scar does not look like normal skin, most people have a fear of what others will think of their scars, that they will be stared at or they think that they are weird. They imagine that others are whispering behind their back about how they look. According to an article in Practical Dermatology, “Mederma Survey: America’s Got Skin Insecurities,”  out of the 87% percent of respondents with scars, half said they used to hate their scars and that their scars negatively affected their self-confidence in the past.” It also says that having a scar kept people from seeing family, going to birthday parties, and even weddings; they felt embarrassed and ashamed of their scars, which kept them from going out in public. In this way, having a negative mindset about a scar can have a negative impact on how they live their life. People will go to great efforts to avoid this negative impact by doing things like hiding their scars.

People who feel ashamed or embarrassed about their scars might try to do whatever they can to hide them from everyone else. They might try putting makeup over them or covering them up with their shirts or clothing. Make-up is the most common way to cover up scars. People use it to alter their faces and make them look more presentable to others. Having a scar makes people feel uncomfortable and think that others will stare at them or whisper behind their backs. Covering it up is one strategy many people use to avoid others seeing the scar, but in the end, the scar is still there. Instead of having to cover it, is there a way for the scar to be erased?

Scientists are studying how they can help a person's body heal without the scar remaining, basically a study for scarless healing. According to Metropolis Dermatology, they have a therapy called laser therapy that helps with all kinds of physical scars: “Laser therapy is a revolutionary approach to treating scars, utilizing focused light energy to target and repair damaged skin. By penetrating deep into the dermis, lasers stimulate collagen remodeling and promote skin resurfacing.” The website then goes on to talk about how laser therapy can be more efficient in the future for people.  This is not the only example of scientists trying to erase scars. Rinkevich wrote an article called “How do Scars Form?” in which he talks about how the cells and the matrix components have the necessary needs and tools to repair a wound. He described “Specialized prefabricated kit of sentry fibroblasts, embedded within a movable sealant, that preassemble together all the cell types and matrix components needed to heal wounds.” At the end of the article, he talks about how there could be a possibility of a method to heal scarlessly. “New mechanisms of wound repair provide a novel therapeutic space to curtail pathological fibrotic responses and induce scarless regenerative healing across a range of medical settings.” From these articles, one can see that scientists are trying to figure out ways to erase scars.

But should scars be erased? To answer this question, people should think about what types of things typically get erased. People erase what they see as bad. They erase things that they do not want to keep. People erase mistakes. Now think about how that relates to scars. If one focuses on the first half of the story of a scar, the injury, then it would make sense that it should be erased, but that would get rid of the second part of the story, also, the healing. If we get rid of healing the scar, then what’s the point of it? We get rid of God’s beautiful purpose in the scar. If we review what we have already talked about, we as humans often do not understand God’s plans. In our mistakes, we get rid of the good that we see as bad. In our efforts to erase the bad side of the story, we often erase the good side of the story, too. There is so much to lose if we completely erase the good side of the story.

There are so many good things a person can draw out by taking the time to remember the healing God brings us. He reminds us of how he brought us out of the pain when injured and reached out a hand for help. He instantly grabbed it. He did not abandon us in our time of need to get to the other side. The healing process is long and hard. One that you must be ready to endure it, and that there is hope. How the injury did not destroy us completely, that no matter how many times you stumble and fall, you did not give up. God did not give up on you; He knows that through this pain, you will build character. Romans 5: 3-4 “ Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” He says we should be joyful in our suffering for He shall deliver us from it, and that through the harsh trials, it helps build perseverance, character, and hope. He also made it so we do not have to walk it alone. That we can lean on Him and the people that he provides. So one should cherish their scars because not only will their character change, but their soul will be made new.

By erasing the good side of the story, we also erase the possible story that God would have worked through the scar. In Sharon Jaynes' book (Your Scars Are Beautiful to God), she talks about how scars do not define who a person is. She shares how scars tell a story and how one can recognize God in their scars. In one of the passages, it says “let’s get on to the business of revealing the truth not being ashamed of our scars, and sharing hope and healing of Jesus Christ" (pg 195). Jaynes is calling out to the audience to not be ashamed of their scars and that their scars do not define who they are. She goes on to share the hope and healing of the scars after the pain.

Jaynes also speaks about forgiveness, which is something that people have a very hard time doing, especially those who were given scars and trauma. Those are the hardest to forgive, but God has shown forgiveness to everyone, so Christians, as well as non-Christians, must show forgiveness to our enemies and let God be the judge of their sins. People experience hardships in their lives that they must adapt and keep moving forward, shaping them into the character that they are that everyone sees. Scars are part of how people are shaped. Through the hardships, they will get scars along the way, whether it be physical or mental. Some scars will heal while others can take a long time or can be reopened by people. The deep scars that healed will not fully go away; they can still be seen, trying to blend in with the rest of the skin. People can recall the memories and how they achieved those scars. Erasing a scar might allow a person to move on, but then they may never show forgiveness. Having a scar helps someone remind themselves if they ever really forgave.

God has multiple other ways that he can use scars. Another thing that people should consider as Christians is how they should view scars and what they should mean to them. People view them as living and showing that you survive something, or that you're alive and that you got a scar to tell your story, but Christians should see it as a way of God using their bad situation for good. David Mathis, in the article “His Scars Will Never Fade: The Wounds Christ Took to Heaven,” posts about how God can use scars for his benefit, just like He can turn something for evil, turn it for good. Genesis 50:20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” Just like when Joseph was sold by his brothers to Egypt, and God turned that bad situation into something good. So scars should be viewed by Christians as the goodness that God can use them for.

Walton’s article “Pain Will Not Have the Last Word” talks about how our scars will only be temporary in this world, telling us they are preparing us for something greater. How are they preparing us for the kingdom of God when He will come back and wipe the world clean? Which brings us to some questions, well, are there still scars in heaven? Will God wipe them clean, or will we still have them?  When Jesus returned to his disciples after being buried and resurrected three days later, He still had his scars in his hands and the scar from the spear in his side. He could have healed them easily, but He kept them so He could show his disciples that it was really Him. A scar shows the harmful realness of sin while also showing the healing victory of Christ over sin.

TobyMac sings a song called " Scars, " and in it, he sings about how the world will leave battle scars. That we are not alone, that everyone has gone through their own tough times. “You, you're are not alone/ We've all been there/Scars come with livin'.” The song speaks not just to Christians but to everyone in life, whether you are rich, poor, or struggling. For we know that people struggle in this world. Our struggles may come from different reasons, but we all have them. Our struggles may come at different ages, but we all have them at some point. Living comes with scars. As we said earlier, scars help build character and hope, but it also shows that you are alive. That you know the pain like everyone else, that you are not alone in this great big world. That everyone has their own struggles, that there are millions of people just like you.

Everyone goes through tough times, but the scars will help them in the future, remind them of the pain that they were in and that the healing that they received after, so that they can help someone else heal. Still having scars is evidence to others that we can understand what they might be going through and that we can help them to the other side.  If every person we meet has also had their struggles, it means that there are a lot of people whom we might be able to help. One can help their friends or family who might be struggling. Someone can be a professional who helps others, like a therapist, for example. Someone who sits and listens to their patients and helps them through their struggles. People are made in God’s image, which means that each one is special and everyone is part of the universal story of humans. Since having scars is also a universal human thing, we should be able to help each other. We struggle and we have the scars  to show for it, but those scars also hold the deeper, bigger picture that God has put in its place.

One of the most powerful resources that Christians have is the Bible. According to The Living Bible, it tells us that there is more to it than just what meets the eye, that there is more than one witness to a story. In this, Christians are called to see that there are two sides to every story, like a coin, as many witnesses who each have a different story of what they witnessed.  Scars have two sides to the story: the first half is the pain and suffering, and how they got the scar, while the second is how they heal from the scar and how they healed. People then ponder the question, "Will Christians have scars in heaven? (Since we learned about the first half of the pain of the story the second half is the healing.) God lets Christians know that they are not alone and that these pains are trials that He puts us through to make us wiser and more deep in our faith. He lets Christians go through pain so they can understand the healing.

In 2021, Casting Crowns released a song called “Scars in Heaven.” In this song, they sing about Jesus having scars in heaven, but in their song, they go on to sing that there will not be any other scars in heaven. “The only scars in Heaven, they won’t belong to me and you.” They sing that the only scars that will be in heaven is that Jesus will be the only one who will have his scars in heaven.  But will we have scars, too? Will Jesus be the only one to have his scars or will God have us keep our scars? All Christians can do is ponder and try to come up with an assumption of what God has in store for us in heaven.

For one to come up with an answer to this question, we can consider what God says about heaven (quote Rev. 21:4).  “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Some people might argue that there are no scars in heaven because there will be no pain, and all the older things will slowly pass away. Scars, as has been discussed, are not pain, they are actually evidence of healing. After the pain, they show healing, and they will be restored with something new.

So, the first thing to consider about there being scars in heaven is thinking about the fact that they are evidence of healing, but the strongest evidence for there being scars in heaven is actually thinking about how Jesus had scars. Jesus showed his disciples the hole in his hand and the spear in his side to show them that He was still alive and that death had been conquered. Jesus takes away our suffering and pain by healing us, taking the full burden of our sins, which then has Christians wondering if they will have scars in Heaven. Something to consider is that Jesus still had His scars when He ascended up to Heaven. Though it has been stated in the Bible that God will give us a new body, one that is imperishable and eternal. Will that body still have scars? Only God knows for sure, but because scars have the story of God’s healing it is possible.

Since we said that scars have two sides of the story, the injury and the healing. What would happen if we focused on the first side? Since you cannot just focus on the second side without the first. When Jesus died for our sins, He took the pain and the injury in his hands, and those scars were still there even after He rose from the grave. Jesus chose to leave his scars on him when He could have easily healed them. (To which Christians may question why He did not just heal Himself, not have those holes in His hands.) If Jesus healed His scars completely, would that lead to people forgetting the miracle He just performed? Would doubting Thomas have been able to recognize Christ? John 20:25 says “They told him, 'We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” Thomas could not believe the others when they told him that Christ was alive. He continued not to believe them until Jesus appeared and told him to put his hands in the nail holes and the spear wound in his side. After doing so, Thomas yells, “My Lord and my God.” The story would have been way different if Jesus had healed his scars.

Christians should learn to see scars as a sign of healing. They should focus on the second half of the story. When they do this, they can see that a scar can help shape the world that we see today. They can see the healing that takes from it there now that it holds a story. One that is most interesting the first part they know that the scar holds much more. Christians also have to see it differently from others. Instead of being shy and wanting to hide their scars, they should instead be bold with them and walk around with them; they should not be shy. They know that a scar is one of God’s many goodnesses. It can be a strong testimony of what God can do.

When Christians learn to see scars this way, it can not just help them; it can also help others. There are many people in society who have scars. That means there are many people searching to learn about their scars. There are many organizations, like the Children’s Hospital Colorado, that try to help them feel better about their scars. This organization has a camp to try to help kids accept their scars with confidence. People go to great lengths to try to feel better about their scars. This kind of thinking is what also leads the scientists to try to erase scars or make scarless healing. But Christians can have a better solution for those who have scars. The solution is not to get rid of the first part of the scar’s story, but instead to focus on the good in the second part of the story. In the book The Scar, by Miéville, the surgeon says to one of the main characters, “Scars are not injuries, Tanner Sack. A scar is a healing. After injury, a scar is what makes you whole.”

Thinking back to the boy at the beginning, the one who had the scar on his finger but did not know how he got it. He thought that since he did not know how the scar got there, it was the end of the story. He was wrong. He was only focusing on the first part of the story, not knowing that more was waiting to be told. It was true that the first part of the story was incomplete because he did not know any details about the injury. The story, however, was far from over. There was a second part of the story. There was the healing part of the story.

The state in which he received his injury was a state of starvation. He was an orphan struggling amongst other orphans. But the second part of his story was different. The boy was blessed in getting adopted by a loving family. Through that family, he slowly began to grow. He slowly gained strength from the nutrients that he was given. His body began to heal just like his finger had healed over time. Though he may not know much and may not remember, for he was so little when it happened, the scar on his finger reminds him of where he came from, where he is now and where he wants to be. God chose to heal him and bring him out of that pit. The scar on his finger will forever remind him of the struggle and pain that he endured, but also the healing and the hope that he has now found. Now he knows there are two sides to his scar’s story, and he can tell his story to those who will listen. The scar itself gives him opportunities to tell this story when people ask about the mark on his hand that they can see. The question comes as: “How did you get that scar?” In the answer,  he can share with them the wonders of God's work because he now knows that the true story of his scar is the second side.

References

American Academy of Dermatology Association (2025). https://www.aad.org/public/diseases/a-z/scars-overview

American Burn Association. https://www.ameriburn.org/patients/understanding-a-burn-injury

Buckley, T. C., Blanchard, E. B., & Neill, W. (2000). Information processing and ptsd: A review of the empirical literature. Clinical Psychology Review, 20(8), 1041-1065. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-7358(99)00030-6

Casting Crowns (2022). Scars in Heaven [Song], Healer [Album].

Children’s Hospital Colorado (2021). https://noordinarycamps.org/

Cleave, C. (2010). Little Bee. Simon and Schuster.

Freedom Health & Wellness (2025). “What Causes a Wound to Scar.” https://freedomhealth-wellness.com/what-causes-a-wound-to-scar/#

Jaynes, S. (2006). Your Scars are Beautiful to God: Finding Peace And Purpose In the Hurts of  Your Past. Harvest House Publishers.

The Living Bible. (1971). Tyndale House Publishers

Mathews, A., Costa, B., Mikkola, A., & Harcourt, D. (2023). ‘Scars: How Our Wounds Make Us Who We Are’: Improving appearance-based stigma, conceptualisation of beauty, and body esteem through a documentary. Scars, Burns & Healing. https://doi.org/10.1177/20595131231205398

Mathis, D. (2019, May 18). His Scars Will Never Fade: The Wounds Christ Took to Heaven, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/his-scars-will-never-fade

May A. (2024).  Heal Your Wound. Jackson Clara Publishing

Metropolis Dermatology. (2025, Jan 9). “Trends in scar Treatment: The Rise of Laser Therapy” https://metropolisdermatology.com/trends-in-scar-treatment-the-rise-of-laser-therapy/#

Miéville, C. (2002). The Scar. Del Rey Publisher.

Perry, B. & Winfrey, O. (2021). What happened to you? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing. Flatiron Books.

Practical Dermatology. (2021). “Mederma Survey: America’s Got Skin Insecurities” https://practicaldermatology.com/news/mederma-survey-skin-insecurities-have-major-impact-on-mental-health/2460797/

Rinkevich, Y.  “How do Scars Form? Fascia functions as a repository of mobile scar tissue.” https://www.hfsp.org/hfsp-news/how-do-scars-form-fascia-function-repository-mobile-scar-tissue#

Risner,V.R. (2016).  The Scars that have Shaped Me: How God Meets us in Suffering. Cruciform Press.

Saenz, BA. (2014). Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Simon and Schuster.

Santiago, P. N., Ursano, R. J., Gray, C. L., Pynoos, R. S., Spiegel, D., Lewis-Fernandez, R., Friedman, M. J., & Fullerton, C. S. (2013). A Systematic Review of PTSD Prevalence and Trajectories in DSM-5 Defined Trauma-Exposed Populations: Intentional and Non-Intentional Traumatic Events. PLOS ONE, 8(4), e59236. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0059236

Tobymac (2018). Scars [Song] The Elements [Album]

Van der Kolk, B.  (2014). “The Body keeps the score: Brain, Mind, and Body In The Healing Of Truama.” Penguin Books

Walton, S. (2018, January 9). Pain Will Not Have the Last Word, January https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/pain-will-not-have-the-last-word