by Joanie Butman
My trip to Florida this year turned out to be more expensive than I expected, and this isn’t the first time. A few years ago, it cost me over $9,000 for ten stitches to reattach the tip of my finger after I partially sliced it off preparing dinner. It wasn’t the first trip to the ER since purchasing Cutco knives. Actually, my son’s summer job as a Cutco salesmen has caused three trips to the emergency room thus far. Who knew his Cutco tenure would still be costing me all these years later?
Fast forward to this year in Florida. The tips of an agave plant wreaked havoc on my hands and arms while gardening. It was merely an annoyance, but one thorn went so deep it couldn’t be retrieved. I assumed it would come out on its own soon enough. I was wrong. Before long I noticed a lump forming. I showed it to my sister who is a doctor. In laymen terms she explained that I was basically growing a pearl, much the same way an oyster encapsulates a stray grain of sand that gets in the shell. The infamous thorn is now encased in its own protective sac, and I need to have it surgically removed. I learned two important lessons from those debacles: eat out and hire a gardener!
While most people wouldn’t see the spiritual lesson, the apostle Paul’s words immediately spring to mind: “Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me” (2 Corinthians 12:7b). The Bible doesn’t reveal the nature of Paul’s thorn. It could be an ailment, a habit, a limp like Jacob, or it might even be a person. There are certainly a few people for whom I am the thorn in their side. Most notably, my husband when I write about him in this blog.
Everyone has something. Our only choice is how we decide to respond to it – or them. Gratefully, I can have my splinter surgically removed easily enough. I wish it was that simple to remove thorns of all kinds that threaten my physical, mental and spiritual health.
Divine thorns tend to be lifelong because it keeps our need for Jesus front and center where it needs to be. In the same way Jacob’s limp reminded him of wrestling with God for a blessing, all the surgeries I’ve had left scars and lingering pain in my side – especially on rainy days. They are sharp reminders of how God blessed me through my suffering.
We all want to be blessed by God but have our own ideas what that blessing should resemble. As Jacob grappled with God demanding a blessing, I’m sure a permanent limp was not what he had in mind. Neither is cancer, but in God’s economy nothing is wasted. Cancer forced me to surrender myself and my family into His care – something I should have been doing long before illness dictated.
In regard to my current thorn, my first reaction was to ignore the growing bulge on my hand. However, the doctor explained that it would cause ongoing problems – best to remove. Sin is similar. Unaddressed sin will always cause ongoing issues and unnecessary pain. There have been plenty of sins I’ve attempted to ignore or deny, but they get compounded in the process. Left untreated, sin grows and spreads. You never want to get so comfortable living with it that you don’t think you need treatment. And when it comes to sin, Christ is the only physician who has the power to remove it, which He did so graciously on the cross. We do have to choose to accept His sacrifice on our behalf though. When we do, Jesus promises that, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
What thorns are plaguing you? Will you choose to seek Christ’s healing? He is always the wise choice.