Thorns in our lives.

Wandering through the woods, my hands and face become tangled with the thick branches of the rose and the thorns that are hanging off the branches. I want to push them away and they are ever present. They stab at me and resist being moved away.

I smell the sweet aroma of the roses that are on the vine and see the bees buzzing overhead. I see that the thorn is seated below the beautiful rose bud which is getting the attention of the bees and man that passes by. Either to drop off and deliver the beautiful pollen from the feet of the bees or to be grasped by man as he cuts off the stem of the rose plant to place in a vase for a beloved.

As I reflect on the roses, they are often sold in the dozen at a very valued price. The plant is delivered with rose, leaves, buds and the thorns attached. We focus on the beauty of the red petals. But often we forget to look at the thorn and neglect to see its beauty as well.


For we all have thorns and sticky situations in our lives. Things to dash off from ourselves. But often God deposits those very things in our lives. Things that must be nurtured and absorbed into our very fabric of our lives. For how can we appreciate a beautiful petal until we see the thorns. I don't know the value of the thorn on the rose plant but it must have some value since God placed it there. So I must see the value in my suffering and in my trials of unemployment. Somewhere there must be a garden that God is tending. I need to invite some bees to pollinate it and to allow it to grow fuller and wider. And to be able to give an offering back to Him as well just as the bees have done.