No scar?

This 1961 film, narrated by Elisabeth Elliot, tells the story of five missionaries killed in Ecuador in 1956. It includes excerpts filmed at the time and this knowledge more than makes up for the poor picture quality. There are  more recent films on the subject so, if you want better quality, albeit dramatisations - just search Youtube. 

Back then budget film-shows were typically distributed on 16mm acetate stock and, at around 12 years old, I was intrigued as much by the projector setup as by the film itself or its plot. But in this case it was very much the plot which made an impact on me. So much so that I cannot now listen to Sibelius' Finlandia or sing the hymn the missionaries sung before embarking on their last trip without it bringing back poignant memories and tear-jerking emotions.

We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender!

We go not forth alone against the foe;

Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender,

We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.

Yes, in Thy Name, O Captain of salvation!

In Thy dear Name, all other names above;

Jesus our Righteousness, our sure Foundation,

Our Prince of glory and our King of love.

We go in faith, our own great weakness feeling,

And needing more each day Thy grace to know:

Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing,

“We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.”

We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender!

Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise;

When passing through the gates of pearly splendour,

Victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.

You or I may not agree with all that they believed - it matters not - let no one dare question their commitment or make light of the ultimate sacrifice they made for the sake of those tribal people. Like that woman in the Bible, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, their actions will be told in memory of them. In Jim's own words He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot loose.

Both Jim and Elisabeth often quoted the poem by Amy Carmichael. Here is Elisabeth's testimony at the 1996 Urbana, Illinois Christian conference:

Hast thou no scar?

No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?

I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;

I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.

Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?

Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,

Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent

By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.

Hast thou no wound?

No wound? No scar?

Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,

And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.

But thine are whole; can he have followed far

Who hast no wound or scar?

Do I bear wounds or scars? None physical: I have avoided them so far, but plenty inside: misgivings, disillusionments, hurt by and loosing trust in friends, prayers long unanswered. I am of course not alone in this. It seems that the older one grows the more unsatisfactory and unresolved "baggage" one accumulates. Like a Windows PC that, through use, gets more and more bogged down to the point where sometimes the best solution is to buy a newer model.

Chapter titles are as much a part of a book as the body text. The last chapter of The Silver Chair is titled "The Healing of Harms". How I long for this. For all the missed opportunities, for all my unkind words, for all the time I have wasted on unimportant things, for the sickness and poverty that I see so rife in the world to be resolved. That it might be true that God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. - he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."