Blessed Thorns

The previous owner of our house planted some rose bushes outside our front door. I'm not big into roses so I dug them up the first year we lived here. We've lived here almost eight years now and daggone it if those darn bushes came back this past summer!! I can't tell you how many times now I've caught my arm on their thorns as I walk in and out of my front door. Those thorns are not only painful but annoying. I am constantly fighting with them. We have another type of weed that seems to LOVE our yard...I don't know the technical name for them...but even my kids know that you can't pick them without good garden gloves. Because if you don't they will get under your skin and fester for days. And although relative to the rose's thorns their thorns are very small but ten times more annoying.

It never ceases to amaze me how God tries to get our attention. Sometimes He whispers and sometimes He screams but His question is always the same, "Am I enough for you?" I believe He gets our attention in the form of "thorns". My thorns have changed throughout the years. Twenty years ago I had a HUGE thorn in my side called infertility. This particular thorn was all-consuming and very painful. My eyes became focused on that pain instead of my Savior. But eventually I accepted that thorn and told my Savior that I didn't need a baby, He was all I need. Ironically, He gave me a baby anyway, in fact five babies!!

I've had many more thorns throughout the years and the question has always been the same, "Am I enough for you? Or do you need that house, money, job, security or health to make you happy?" Although my heart wanders and forgets, my Savior always gently leads me back to the same answer, "YES! Lord You are enough! Of course you are. I'm sorry I forgot."

I have another thorn now. Unlike a thorn from a rose bush, this thorn is small and annoying like those darn little weeds all over our yard. It has burrowed into my flesh, irritating the daylights out of me. Over the last several weeks/months I have found my mind wandering again, taking my eyes off the Savior and focused on the pain that the thorn gives way to. But I was reminded of this verse this passage from the Bible this week...

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I am so ashamed. How could I have forgotten the question so quickly, so easily? How could I have gotten so focused on an insignificant weed in my soul? But this verse turns my eyes back to the Savior again. Yes, Lord you are sufficient for me!! And even if this thorn never leaves my flesh...you are enough. I'm sorry I forgot.

I feel thankful now for this thorn to remind me of His grace. I am thankful for His power to rest in me. And I delight in this blessed thorn. For in this state of weakness I am strong!!