BIBLICAL THORNS

Pictured is a beautiful rose from our daughter's house. She has only about four rose bushes, but they're mature and thrive in the San Diego climate. They are some of the largest I've seen. They beautify her yard. That's what roses are supposed to do. I didn't purchase any for Valentine's Day this year, but the last time I checked, they were going for $75 a dozen. I'm not sure what a dozen of her roses could fetch, but they certainly would make the recepient happy to receive them.

As with many things, though, appearances aren't always a good indicator of the whole story. The whole reality. For roses also possess thorns. The most famous in scripture is of course Jesus' crown of thorns. I suffer every time I think of the soldier putting the crown of thorns on His head in mock blasphemy for "the King of the Jews". I also have heard religious leaders talk about how we as Christians want our crown, but we don't want the pain and the disgrace of our own crown of thorns. Yet we must if we are to be crucified with Christ and shed our old way of life, our former sinful nature,for we have to take on a servant's heart, we have to spread the gospel message, and we have to accept our crown of thorns, too.

Paul's thorn in his flesh is another biblical example. Many times Paul prayed for God to remove it. Whatever it was. Some have thought it was his poor eyesight, but it's one of those questions that we'll have to wait to learn its answer in Heaven. Like so many questions that we have no answer to now, I have a feeling that it won't matter very much to us when we get to Heaven. We'll have a lot to keep us occupied without worrying about minutia.

But again, as Christians we seem to focus too much on the thorn in our side instead of what the Lord has done for us. Our focus is again on the minutia, although at the time, it certainly does seem important. The English poet Lord Byron, quite a ladies' man in his day rued his club foot, his thorn. It didn't seem to slow his writing nor his lifestyle, but it spawned another writer to lament "we all have our own club foot". Whether a club foot or a thorn, or a thorn as a club foot, we all have difficulites and imperfections. And, likewise, we all focus on the wrong things at times.

In one instance we reject the thorns and the pain they bring; in the other we can't de-emphasize the thorn in our life. We embrace desensitivity in either case, and that's no way to respond to the Lord. "Give me roses, yes Lord, but I'm strengthened by their thorns. May I embrace Your will for my life."