In traumas like those our boys have experienced, counselors often use the analogy of a deep cut. Leave a wound untreated, they say, and it’s much more susceptible to infection and problems later on. The infection may even spread and affect other parts of the body.
But it’s better to clean the cut and remove all the germs. Physicians clean wounds gently but thoroughly, and check them periodically to make sure that healing is happening. Eventually, only a scar remains—nothing more than a reminder of the old wound. The trauma becomes a distant memory.
In the same way, if boys rescued from the sex trafficking industry ignore their pain, it gets worse. It spreads to affect other areas of the boys’ lives, and it keeps them from being who God intends.
At Blackbox International, counselors treat the wound of sexual trauma until all that’s left is a scar—a healed reminder of the past, no longer a hindrance in the present.
That’s what the Christian faith is all about, really. This week, we’ll celebrate a risen Lord—the Great Physician whose death brought us life, and whose blood cleansed us gently but thoroughly. We’ll be thankful for scars, because “by His wounds we are healed.”