THE BLESSING OF THORNS<\/p>\n
Sandra felt as low as the heels of her shoes as she pushed against a
\nNovember gust and the florist shop door.<\/p>\n
Her life had been easy, like a spring breeze. Then in the fourth month
\nof her second pregnancy, a minor automobile accident stole that from
\nher.<\/p>\n
During this Thanksgiving week she would have delivered a son. She
\ngrieved over her loss. As if that weren’t enough, her husband’s company
\nthreatened a transfer. Then her sister, whose holiday visit she coveted,
\ncalled saying she could not come for the holiday.<\/p>\n
Then Sandra’s friend infuriated her by suggesting her grief was a
\nGod-given path to maturity that would allow her to empathize with others
\nwho suffer. She has no idea what I’m feeling, thought Sandra with a
\nshudder.<\/p>\n
Thanksgiving? Thankful for what? She wondered. For a careless driver
\nwhose truck was hardly scratched when he rear-ended her? For an airbag
\nthat saved her life but took that of her child?<\/p>\n
“Good afternoon, can I help you?” The shop clerk’s approach startled
\nher.<\/p>\n
“I….I need an arrangement, ” stammered Sandra.<\/p>\n
“For Thanksgiving? Do you want beautiful but ordinary, or would you like
\nto challenge the day with a customer favorite I call the Thanksgiving
\n“Special?” asked the shop clerk. “I’m convinced that flowers tell
\nstories,” she continued. “Are you looking for something that conveys
\n‘gratitude’ this thanksgiving? ”<\/p>\n
“Not exactly!” Sandra blurted out. “In the last five months, everything
\nthat could go wrong has gone wrong.”<\/p>\n
Sandra regretted her outburst, and was surprised when the shop clerk
\nsaid, “I have the perfect arrangement for you.”<\/p>\n
Just then the shop door’s small bell rang, and the shop clerk said, “Hi,
\nBarbara…let me get your order.” She politely excused herself and
\nwalked toward a small workroom, then quickly reappeared, carrying an
\narrangement of greenery, bows, and long-stemmed thorny roses. Except the
\nends of the rose stems were neatly snipped: there were no flowers.<\/p>\n
“Want this in a box?” asked the clerk.<\/p>\n
Sandra watched for the customer’s response. Was this a joke? Who would
\nwant rose stems with no flowers! She waited for laughter, but neither
\nwoman laughed.<\/p>\n
“Yes, please,” Barbara, replied with an appreciative smile. “You’d think
\nafter three years of getting the special, I wouldn’t be so moved by its
\nsignificance, but I can feel it right here, all over again,” she said as
\nshe gently tapped her chest. And she left with her order.<\/p>\n
“Uh,” stammered Sandra, “that lady just left with, uh….she just left
\nwith no flowers!<\/p>\n
“Right, said the clerk, “I cut off the flowers. That’s the Special. I
\ncall it the Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet.”<\/p>\n
“Oh, come on, you can’t tell me someone is willing to pay for that!”
\nexclaimed Sandra.<\/p>\n
“Barbara came into the shop three years ago feeling much like you feel
\ntoday,” explained the clerk. “She thought she had very little to be
\nthankful for. She had lost her father to cancer, the family business was
\nfailing, her son was into drugs, and she was facing major surgery.”<\/p>\n
“That same year I had lost my husband,” continued the clerk, “and for
\nthe first time in my life, had just spent the holidays alone. I had no
\nchildren, no husband, no family nearby, and too great a debt to allow
\nany travel.”<\/p>\n
“So what did you do?” asked Sandra.<\/p>\n
“I learned to be thankful for thorns,” answered the clerk quietly. “I’ve
\nalways thanked God for the good things in my life and never questioned
\nthe good things that happened to me, but when bad stuff hit, did I ever
\nask questions! It took time for me to learn that dark times are
\nimportant. I have always enjoyed the ‘flowers’ of life, but it took
\nthorns to show me the beauty of God’s comfort. You know, the Bible says
\nthat God comforts us when we’re afflicted, and from His consolation we
\nlearn to comfort others.”<\/p>\n
Sandra sucked in her breath as she thought about the very thing her
\nfriend had tried to tell her. “I guess the truth is I don’t want
\ncomfort. I’ve lost a baby and I’m angry with God.”<\/p>\n
Just then someone else walked in the shop. “Hey, Phil!” shouted the
\nclerk to the balding, rotund man.<\/p>\n
“My wife sent me in to get our usual Thanksgiving Special….12 thorny,
\nlong-stemmed stems!” laughed Phil as the clerk handed him a
\ntissue-wrapped arrangement from the refrigerator.<\/p>\n
“Those are for your wife?” asked Sandra incredulously. “Do you mind me
\nasking why she wants something that looks like that?”<\/p>\n
“No…I’m glad you asked,” Phil replied. “Four years ago my wife and I
\nnearly divorced. After forty years, we were in a real mess, but with the
\nLord’s grace and guidance, we slogged through problem after problem. He
\nrescued our marriage. Jenny here (the clerk) told me she kept a vase of
\nrose stems to remind her of what she learned from “thorny” times, and
\nthat was good enough for me. I took home some of those stems. My wife
\nand I decided to label each one for a specific “problem” and give thanks
\nfor what that problem taught us.”<\/p>\n
As Phil paid the clerk, he said to Sandra, “I highly recommend the
\nSpecial!”<\/p>\n
“I don’t know if I can be thankful for the thorns in my life.” Sandra
\nsaid. “It’s all too…fresh. ”<\/p>\n
“Well,” the clerk replied carefully, “my experience has shown me that
\nthorns make roses more precious. We treasure God’s providential care
\nmore during trouble than at any other time. Remember, it was a crown of
\nthorns that Jesus wore so we might know His love. Don’t resent the
\nthorns.”<\/p>\n
Tears rolled down Sandra’s cheeks. For the first time since the
\naccident, she loosened her grip on resentment. “I’ll take those twelve
\nlong-stemmed thorns, please,” she managed to choke out.<\/p>\n
“I hoped you would,” said the clerk gently. “I’ll have them ready in a
\nminute.”<\/p>\n
“Thank you. What do I owe you?”<\/p>\n
“Nothing. Nothing but a promise to allow God to heal your heart. The
\nfirst year’s arrangement is always on me.” The clerk smiled and handed a
\ncard to Sandra. “I’ll attach this card to your arrangement, but maybe
\nyou would like to read it first.”<\/p>\n
It read: “My God, I have never thanked You for my thorns. I have thanked
\nYou a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns. Teach
\nme the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my thorns. Show
\nme that I have climbed closer to You along the path of pain. Show me
\nthat, through my tears, the colors of Your rainbow look much more
\nbrilliant.”<\/p>\n
Praise Him for your roses; thank him for your thorns!<\/p>\n
— Author Unknown<\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE BLESSING OF THORNS 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[245,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-becca-2","category-faith","wpcat-245-id","wpcat-9-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s504YJ-thorns","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5682,"url":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/2008\/11\/hannah-9-months","url_meta":{"origin":5835,"position":0},"title":"Hannah – 9 Months","author":"Becca","date":"November 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Hannah is 9 months old and just had her well-visit! 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