The Thorns

      “Ouch!” As the thorn makes itself a new dwelling place in my finger I grimace. “This fruit would be so much easier to pick if it weren’t for these things!” I pull on the offending piece of vegetation. My inward dialogue continues. “The picking is so good… and some of the best fruit is the most difficult and painful to grasp.” I move around the bush to get an easier hold of some berries. 

      Wait. Am I really doing that? Picking only the fruit that is obtained with little pain? Spiritually speaking... do I want all the benefits of Christianity — Christ-like living, without so much as the thorns of Christ’s crown? 

     Christ’s yoke is easy and His burden light. He promises “an hundredfold” in this life, and eternal life to come. Yet, at times there seems to be pain between us and the precious fruit of righteousness. 

      …If heaven considered thorns a thing to be avoided, where would we be? In the presence of greater pain than any piece of rubus fruiticosus could inflict, Christ valued the fruit of souls as something worth the pain to gain. To God, You are more valuable than price of pain.

      What about us? What value do we place upon salvation? Either for ourselves, or another, are thorns enough to squelch our desire for fruit? 

      A very wise author wrote,“If the thing you desire is valuable, it is worthy of a strong, earnest effort… If it costs you something to obtain it you will prize it more when obtained.” - {Pr 108.4}. Salvation… souls… the Savior… these are worth the thorns. What do you say?