Don’t be a hater! Listen to Mater. This backwards-drivin’, tractor-tippin’, “tuh-mater” without the “tuh,” is one of my favorite movie actors—if animated talking, rusty pickup trucks can qualify as such. Sometimes cultured phrases just don’t adequately put life into its rightful perspective. But that’s where Mater-isms come into play:
“I knew it. I knowed I’d made a good choice [in] my best friend” (for when you and your BFF are having a genuine heart-to-heart).
“Whatever you do, do not eat the free pistachio ice cream” (for when your friend has too much wasabi on their plate at the Asian buffet).
“Boy, I’m pretty good at this lawyerin’ stuff” (for when you think you just won the argument with your spouse).
Mater also has a way of bringing us face to face with the restorative nature of embracing our scars.
We see this in the Cars 2 movie when Mater meets Holley Shiftwell. Holley feels it’s her responsibility to fix Mater’s dents. But Mater is startled. “Oh, for a second there I thought you was trying to fix my dents,” said Mater. “Yes, I was,” replied Holley Shiftwell. “Well then, no thank you,” says Mater. “I don’t get them dents buffed, pulled, filled or painted by nobody. They way too valuable.” “Your dents are valuable? Really?” Holley Shiftwell is puzzled. “I come by each one of ’em with my best friend Lightning McQueen,” the tarnished ambassador of Radiator Springs proudly admits. “I don’t fix these. I wanna remember these dents forever.”
Sometimes Mater is a few pancakes short of a stack. He is a little naïve and occasionally embarrassing to his best friend, Lightning McQueen, but one thing is for sure: He’s very comfortable in his own rust.
We can learn a little somethin’ from our pal, Mater: Our dents are valuable.
Every dent we have can bear the beauty of grace and redemption. For some it’s the scar of a broken relationship or the shame of a past failure. Some dents come in the traumatic form of grief over the loss of a loved one. Many experience dents and scars from ill-advised decisions that happened during immature seasons of life. We get our dents during good times and bad—sometimes for reasons beyond our control and other times for behaviors that were well within our control. But the good news is this: no matter how we got our dents, we can come to embrace every one of them as a valuable and permanent stain in which God’s faithfulness and redemption met us in our brokenness.
Our scars speak of God’s steadfast and unconditional love (Romans 5:6-8). Our dents prove that God is gracious to love us beyond our failures and brokenness (Psalm 34:18), that He never abandoned us in our pain (Psalm 94:14), and that He is faithful to prune us through every hardship and “establish” us through that which we have suffered (1 Peter 5:10).
Paul reminds us that God causes us to become redemptive agents of comfort and healing to others through our sufferings and scars: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Jesus is not in the least bit intimidated by our brokenness, our failures, or our scars. He doesn’t just look beyond our dents, he redemptively sees through them and promises us a faithful future. Have you come to make peace with your dents? They can be the place where God demonstrates his greatest strength through your life, if you let him (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
Value your dents and get comfortable with your rusty spots. Thank God for them often… they are the spots where God’s grace shines most vividly in your life.
Think about that as you abide in Him this week.
Learn to value your dents. Every ONE of them bears the beauty of grace and redemption.
Question for Reflection:
- What do you find difficult, awkward, or embarrassing about being you?
- In what ways have you seen God work through brokenness in your life?
- What are some things you regret from your past that God may long to use to comfort others in the future?
- Paul learned to boast in his weaknesses so that the “power” of Christ would be demonstrated through them (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). What might that look like for you this week?
- How can you develop a practice of seeing your dents and scars more through the lens of God’s redeeming grace rather than the lens of lingering regret?