Brad Johnson is a former pastor of Living Hope Baptist Church and a teaching pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. His column appears monthly in the Daily News.

Recently I got a haircut. No, I got a buzz cut really short, close to the scalp. In the process, I learned an important lesson: Never get a haircut from someone who speaks another language. I looked at my newly shorn head, smiled at the barber, paid the bill and went out into the California heat worrying about sunburn. Because my hair is really short, I can see some scars on my scalp that have been there since childhood. One was from stitches I received after my bigger brother put me in the clothes hamper and rolled me down the steps. I think we were pretending that I was going over Niagara Falls in a barrel!Another scar came because I was sitting at a picnic table and, when everyone on the other side stood up, the table tipped backwards and my head hit a brick wall. More stitches. These blunt force head traumas could explain a lot about me. Hmmmm?It dawned on me that scars are visible reminders of lessons learned, albeit the hard way. For instance, I learned to never roll down stairs in a hamper. I learned how the principles of physics relate to picnic tables. I have a faint half-moon shaped scar just under my lower lip; caught an elbow during a high school wrestling match. From that, I learned to keep my face out of harms way. Honestly, we can choose to learn lessons from our scars or, we can repeat behavior over and over and continue to add scars to our life. More truth about scars can be seen in nature. When we moved to California, we desperately wanted to have a palm tree in our yard. As it turns out, we have well over a dozen. Recently, a palm branch began turning yellow. Over time it finally was brownish yellow and obviously dead. I asked a neighbor what to do. He informed me that the branches die and they need to be cut off. Then, the palm tree will sprout another green shoot that will become a new branch. Eventually, this is how a palm tree grows taller. As I was pruning my palm, I noticed the places from bottom to top where branches had been cut off. These places, like scars, covered the outer surface of the tree. The knobby, diamond shaped markings that give a palm tree its unique look are really scars, former branches that were cut off. Heres the truth: Scars are the places along the tree trunk of life that allow us to grow. Without them we are stunted and can never become all we were created to be. The wise person not only sees the scars but sees beyond the scars and discovers texture and in a special way beauty. What are those scars that mark your life? What lessons have you learned?What should you learn? How have the painful places of life made you stronger, your character taller? God can transform your scars into things of beauty and meaning. Whisper a prayer right now and ask Him to teach you the lessons from your scars.