Thorns

Thorns and Roses

Don’t complain about thorns among roses;

Be grateful for roses among thorns.

--Joanie Yoder



I’m painting a bunch of pink roses for my amiable student nurses who took care of me during and after surgery when I noticed I forgot to include the thorns. They don’t look real if I missed the thorns.
Can we just have the roses without the thorns, please? Yet even on Valentines day, we receive roses complete with thorns. We often overlook the thorns and admire the flowers, and the loving thought behind those flowers are more important to us than the gift itself.
But in life we wish that it is a bed of roses. That it is made of soft petals, velvety touch in bright or pastel colors. Unfortunately, life’s journey can be full of thistles, sometimes. We often pray to spare us from the storm, to hide us from the lashing waves. After the onslaught, we wonder how we survived. God’s grace is sufficient and He is never early nor too late.
We get hurt, and most often the scars never go away. They remind us to be humble, that we are not made of gold but our Maker fashioned us from clay. We are far from perfect, yet we are a work in progress. The master Potter sees the finished masterpiece not the crude unfinished lump of clay. He doesn’t give up, until we become a sturdy, shiny vessel whom He can use for His purpose.
My friend from across the globe who has a husband with cancer wrote to me recently, that she had just received bad news about his condition. But she doesn’t lose hope that he will be well someday. She wants to be strong for him, and stay with him through thick and thin. Sharon is an admirable godly woman whose faith can move mountains. She gets up daily and do the best she can and for the things that are too hard to accomplish, she leaves it to God.
We are like teabags. We only know what we are made of if we are put inside a cup of boiling water. It’s hot, but the temperature brings out our real colors. Someone wrote that the real character of the person can be measured not in success but how he handles failures.
When storms hit us, we can either throw in the towel and quit or stand up and finish the race. No one is a born loser. Not until we choose to be one. Everyone has his own gift from God. It may take time to nurture it but the hardest part is FINDING those gifts which have been there within us for many years, and BELIEVING that we can actually use them.
Roses are beautiful but the thorns are part of the package. The most successful person is the one who knows how to live both in good and bad times.
Flowers grow after the rain, and trials produce perseverance. Gratefulness is a virtue that never runs out.