Thorns in Our Flesh

Just about this time twenty-one years ago, my wife Betty began filling up our deck with all kinds of potted plants. We had just moved here from Southern California and I’ve never been much of a plant person. She, however, loved to watch the flowers grow and, when spring rolled around, she would have me bring all her plants up from the basement where they slept all winter and set them out in their pots on the deck. That was mostly the extent of my involvement with gardening as she would do all the necessary tending from then on. Let me tell you, she certainly had the proverbial green thumb and every thing she put her little hands to flourished and blossomed profusely. Her hanging ferns out in our carport thrived under her dedicated care, as did the begonias, fuscia, geraniums and impatiens hanging in their baskets from the eaves outside the French doors on our deck.

As I say, all I had to do was bring her beloved plants up on the deck the beginning of every spring and my gardening chores were just about done. One of the things that wounded me every year, however, was a vicious favorite of hers called a Crown of Thorns. Let me tell you, every time I hauled that monstrosity in its 18-inch diameter clay tub up from the basement I ended up bruised and bloodied. She found the thing in a nursery somewhere in town and fell in love with it. It was small to begin with, but under her care it grew rapidly into a weapon with gnarled arms full of inch-long thorns designed, I’m sure, to stab my flesh and bring words I once learned in the Navy rushing to the surface of my mind.

It occurred to me a few days ago as I was pouring my first cup of coffee that we all have painful things in our lives that we just can’t seem to resolve. I thought of the Apostle Paul and his thorn in the flesh passage in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7. He gives no indication as to what his malady was, but it was something he said a messenger of Satan had sent to buffet him--defective vision perhaps--lest he should be exalted beyond measure. “Concerning this thing,” he said, “I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.” And the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” So, obedient Paul responded, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

I once read a physical description of the Apostle Paul. Apparently he was a skinny, bald little man with spindly bowed legs, a long hooked nose, a high squeaky voice, and eyes that continually watered. But you know, even with his thorns in the flesh, the Lord used the little guy to spread the Gospel throughout the known world. Some say Paul was, hands down, the single most effective evangelist in the history of the church.

Since we are certainly not loved more than Paul, it occurred to me further that some of the maladies and handicaps we have so long endured and have prayed for the Lord’s deliverance from without success, may be to teach us just how weak we really are. We desperately need to acknowledge our weaknesses and rely much more on the strength of our Lord, accepting our thorns in the flesh and getting on with life.

What is your thorn in the flesh, my friend? Certainly you have one or more. Personally, I have several. Macular degeneration is high on the list; so far there’s no cure for it. I was born with a mixed astigmatism that probably saved my life in WWII, since my poor vision, though it was good enough for service in the Navy, kept me from duty with the fleet Marines as a combat medic. Also I have a hearing problem that is increasing; and a gradual loss of physical faculties that naturally come with the accumulation of the years. I just can’t do what I once could. Some of my friends are suffering through all kinds of physical disabilities, far greater than mine. However, you may be physically fit but have an on-going battle with depression or anxiety or fearfulness. Perhaps you’re in a difficult marriage, or your son or daughter is in serious trouble. Maybe you’ve lost your job recently and the bills are piling up. All of these can be thorns in the flesh. Certainly we should constantly pray for them, but if the answer to our prayers is in the negative, what recourse do we have but to trust God for the solution? Difficult to do? You bet. At least it is for me, in spite of the “All things…” the Apostle Paul mentions in Romans 8:28.

But enough philosophizing, for this session. One of my thorns in the flesh has been resolved and troubles me no more. Since my wife is gone now, that old crown of thorns she loved and I detested is now at rest out in the woods behind my house. I put the thing, as gently as I could, in my wheel barrow a few years ago and set it down, clay tub and all, out of my sight amongst the leaves and broken branches, for the squirrels and other critters to battle. Still, my vicious antagonist had the last word after all. When I delivered my wheel barrow back to the basement, I discovered several bloody scratches on both arms. So much for one of my thorns in the flesh. Alas, I still have others. However, with the Apostle Paul, I am learning that when I am weak, then I can be strong in the Lord. May it ever be so.