I am Glad that Thorns have Roses
Max H. Rammell
The other day my imagination was piqued by a unique play on words that was posted outside of our lovely Baptist Chapel here in Bountiful, Utah. I always read and often post in my journal the messages that are found there from time to time. They always reflect the inspiration of their pastor. More often than not, they lead to other bits and pieces that hide in my brain, and like the computer it is, it requires something outside to jump start whatever is stored from times past or things I wish to remember.
Well today the magic words were: "I am so glad that thorns have roses." Admittedly, for a moment or two I had to turn my brain around. Usually thorns are not my favorite flower. They are more like the forbidding black hull of a black walnut that bruises and pricks my fingers in my zeal for the tiny delicious morsel of fruit inside. But even while sucking and nursing my bruised fingers from the misguided blow of a hammer or the sharp reminder of a needle sharp thorn, I have to recognize their unique beauty and the masterful manner in which they meet their divinely appointed charge to help produce and protect something even lovelier than they as they fulfill their missions.
True, beauty is often found in "the doing" rather than in appearance only. The oft used phrase, "a thorn in my side," often overlooks the fact that we more often than not are responsible for the thorn being there in a place we shouldn't be, or for doing something that we aught not be doing in the first place, like the aptly stated "Don't pet a rattle snake."
Perhaps at this point in time and in my self induced memorization I should ask what has petting a snake or cracking a walnut to do with thorns having roses? In all probability very little, at least in the abstract, but if I return to reality they are blood relatives or kissing cousins to say the least. If in our every day lives, we resonate thorns as something to endure or better yet to give battle, they take on a peculiar hue of beauty. We climb a mountain because it is there or run a grueling 26 mile marathon because it is not an every day sort of thing. The feeling that some have said they experience with those last heart breaking steps at the finish line, even though there are many people ahead of them, to finish at all costs, makes it all worth while.
And try to explain a beautiful sunset to a sightless person or the fragrance of a rose to one who cannot smell. I wonder, are they the last word? If so, explain the wonder of one of the world's greatest composers of celestial music, he who could not hear the beautiful strains of his own composition. Yet he gave to the world his greatest of gifts, to those of us who can hear his music. How did he do it? He did it simply by pressing his upper row of teeth firmly against the vibration of the sounding board of the piano being played by another, allowing the unheard vibrations of music to record their lovely strains to his soundless ears. Has the world been blessed because silence has music? Do thorns really have roses? Yes, is the striving for the eternal reward rosier than the getting?
My father, my hero, one who wouldn't give up, once told me in all of his competitive sports, and especially during the closing moments of his physical struggling, even with his strength gone and a taunting defeat laughing him to scorn, at that moment an indescribable will would always take over. "If I am this close to defeat, what about the other guy?" He would think to himself, "His struggles must be as great as mine. I will hold on for a few seconds more and maybe he will give." That he won is the rest of the story.
Do heart aches and sorrow have joy and happiness?
Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands. John 19:1-3
Consider the following: "Who are these who are arrayed in white robes and whence came they? And the Angel answered, 'these are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, are they before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His Temple and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.'" (Rev. 7:13-17)
Yes, thorns really do have roses.