A Thorn at Thanksgiving

[A] thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me … 2 Corinthians 12:7

A thorn at Thanksgiving seems out of place. We equate gratitude with ease, joy, and satisfaction, perfect situations that remind us of a Hallmark movie. However, real life is seldom free of thorns. Most holiday seasons pass without the joy and happiness seen in television and movies.

Thankfulness Prompted by Thorns

Paul’s life was filled with trials from his meeting with Christ on the Damascus Road. Yet he wrote of his thorn, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰ For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:8-10)

We fail to experience true gratitude for the blessings we do have all too often. We fail to remember that every event of our lives is within God’s foreknowledge and providence.

That minor fender-bender may have saved us from a worse accident. The rescheduled doctor’s appointment may have prevented exposure to a dangerous illness. That week off work with the flu may have given us time to seek God and pray about a major concern. We must never doubt that the “Blessed Controller of all things” has a purpose for the troubles we meet daily.

When we cultivate gratefulness we find blessings tangled in our thorns.https://inspireafire.com/what-if-thanksgiving-is-about-thanksliving/

Wisdom Learned Through Thorns

Scottish preacher George Matheson was no stranger to trials and sadness. As a twenty-year-old seminary student he was engaged to be married, and looked forward to a bright future. Then the doctor informed him that the eye problems he had struggled with throughout his teens would leave him blind. He broke the news to his fiancée, who ended their engagement, saying she couldn’t spend her life with a blind man. When his sister married twenty years later, it reopened his old wound of loneliness and loss, leading him to pen the poignant lyrics to O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go:

 

O Joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my hear to thee.

I trace the rainbows through the rain,

and feel the promise is not vain,

that morn shall tearless be.

 

Matheson penned The Blessing of the Thorns: “My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorns … teach me the glory of my cross, teach me the value of my thorn.”¹ The following story is credited to him:

The Blessing of Thorns

The Thanksgiving Special

Sandra felt as low as the heels of her shoes as she pushed against a November gust and the florist shop door.

Her life had been easy, like a spring breeze. Then in the fourth month of her second pregnancy, a minor automobile accident stole that from her. During this Thanksgiving week she would have delivered a son. She grieved over her loss. As if that weren’t enough, her husband’s company threatened a transfer. Then her sister, whose holiday visit she coveted, called saying she could not come for the holiday. Then Sandra’s friend infuriated her by suggesting her grief was a God-given path to maturity that would allow her to empathize with others who suffer.

She has no idea what I’m feeling, thought Sandra with a shudder. Thanksgiving? Thankful for what? She wondered. For a careless driver whose truck was hardly scratched when he rear-ended her? For an airbag that saved her life but took that of her child?

“Good afternoon, can I help you?” The shop clerk’s approach startled her.

“I….I need an arrangement,” stammered Sandra.

“For Thanksgiving? Do you want beautiful but ordinary, or would you like to challenge the day with a customer favorite I call the Thanksgiving Special?” Asked the shop clerk. “I’m convinced that flowers tell stories,” she continued. “Are you looking for something that conveys ‘gratitude’ this Thanksgiving?”

“Not exactly!” Sandra blurted out. “In the last five months, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.”

Sandra regretted her outburst, and was surprised when the shop clerk said, “I have the perfect arrangement for you.”

Thorns Without Roses

Just then the shop door’s small bell rang, and the shop clerk said, “Hi Barbara…let me get your order.” She politely excused herself and walked toward a small workroom, then quickly reappeared, carrying an arrangement of greenery, bows, and long-stemmed thorny roses. Except for the ends of the rose stems were neatly snipped: there were no flowers.

“Want this in a box?” asked the clerk.

Sandra watched for the customer’s response. Was this a joke? Who would want rose stems with no flowers? She waited for laughter, but neither woman laughed.

“Yes, please,” Barbara, replied with an appreciative smile. “You’d think after three years of getting the special, I wouldn’t be so moved by its significance, but I can feel it right here, all over again,” she said as she gently tapped her chest. And she left with her order.

“Uh,” stammered Sandra, “that lady just left with, uh….she just left with no flowers!”

Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet

“Right, said the clerk, “I cut off the flowers. That’s the Special. I call it the Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet.”

“Oh, come on, you can’t tell me someone is willing to pay for that!” exclaimed Sandra.

“Barbara came into the shop three years ago feeling much like you feel today,” explained the clerk.

“She thought she had very little to be thankful for. She had lost her father to cancer, the family business was failing, her son was into drugs, and she was facing major surgery.”

“That same year I had lost my husband,” continued the clerk, “and for the first time in my life, had just spent the holidays alone. I had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too great a debt to allow any travel.”

“So what did you do?” asked Sandra.

“I learned to be thankful for thorns,” answered the clerk quietly. “I’ve always thanked God for the good things in my life and never questioned the good things that happened to me, but when bad stuff hit, did I ever ask questions! It took time for me to learn that dark times are important. I have always enjoyed the ‘flowers’ of life, but it took thorns to show me the beauty of God’s comfort. You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when we’re afflicted, and from His consolation, we learn to comfort others.”

Sandra sucked in her breath as she thought about the very thing her friend had tried to tell her. “I guess the truth is I don’t want comfort. I’ve lost a baby and I’m angry with God.”

Thorns Make Roses Precious

Just then someone else walked in the shop. “Hey, Phil!” shouted the clerk to the balding, rotund man.

“My wife sent me in to get our usual Thanksgiving Special….12 thorny, long-stemmed stems!” laughed Phil as the clerk handed him a tissue-wrapped arrangement from the refrigerator.

“Those are for your wife?” asked Sandra incredulously. “Do you mind me asking why she wants something that looks like that?”

“No…I’m glad you asked,” Phil replied. “Four years ago my wife and I nearly divorced. After forty years, we were in a real mess, but with the Lord’s grace and guidance, we slogged through problem after problem. He rescued our marriage. Jenny here (the clerk) told me she kept a vase of rose stems to remind her of what she learned from “thorny” times, and that was good enough for me. I took home some of those stems. My wife and I decided to label each one for a specific “problem” and give thanks for what that problem taught us.” As Phil paid the clerk, he said to Sandra, “I highly recommend the Special!”

Thanking Through the Tears

“I don’t know if I can be thankful for the thorns in my life,” Sandra said. “It’s all too…fresh.”

“Well,” the clerk replied carefully, “my experience has shown me that thorns make roses more precious. We treasure God’s providential care more during trouble than at any other time. Remember, it was a crown of thorns that Jesus wore so we might know His love. Don’t resent the thorns.”

Tears rolled down Sandra’s cheeks. For the first time since the accident, she loosened her grip on resentment. “I’ll take those twelve long-stemmed thorns, please,” she managed to choke out.

“I hoped you would,” said the clerk gently. “I’ll have them ready in a minute.”

“Thank you. What do I owe you?”

“Nothing. Nothing but a promise to allow God to heal your heart. The first year’s arrangement is always on me.” The clerk smiled and handed a card to Sandra. “I’ll attach this card to your arrangement, but maybe you would like to read it first.”

It read: “My God, I have never thanked You for my thorns. I have thanked You a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed closer to You along the path of pain. Show me that, through my tears, the colors of Your rainbow look much more brilliant.”

God, Thank You For My Thorns

Every event in our lives is filtered through the love of God. Jesus Christ died and rose again that we might have everlasting life. Therefore, we can praise Him in spite of intense trials.

Praise Him for your roses; thank him for your thorns!

[G]ive thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

 

¹ George Matheson, Moments on the Mount: A Series of Devotional Meditations (New York: A.C. Armstrong & Son, 1884) 61., My Soul,” 1855.