Thorns!

December 28, 2023

Thorns!

I pray you had a great Christmas! 

Our Christmas was quiet as Cindy and I were not with our families.  There was the gift of many moments for reflection and inspiration.  I was reminded that Christmas is the revelation, the gift, and the promise of God fulfilled in us. 

Christmas reminds us that Jesus is born the Son of God and the Son of Man in a stable.  It is a dirty place, a dark place, and an out of the way place where the Savior is born.  It was a place not fit for the King of Kings.

Christmas reminds us that Jesus is both God and human.  His parents are poor, unimportant, and humble people with no power, no influence, and no status.  At the same time, Jesus’ father was the God of the universe.

Christmas reminds us that Jesus came to reveal the Kingdom of God on earth.  The world was (and is!) badly broken with far too little light and love.  Jesus came to bring hope and help and holiness.  Jesus came to bring a future with hope to all people.

For many, Christmas is a day of great peace and joy and love.  It is a day to celebrate the goodness and grace of the Lord God.  And yet for many others, the unique revelation of God in the birth of Jesus is diminished by regrets of the past or pain in the present or fear of the future.

For many people, Christmas is little more than a reminder that their life is not anything like what they expected or what they believed God has promised.  It’s like there is a thorn that continues to irritate, aggravate, and exasperate. 

Our thorn brings distractions of all kinds our way; loneliness, sadness, and anger as well as guilt, jealously, and fear or even mental anguish, emotional distress, and physical pain.  It’s difficult to understand why the thorn makes itself known while we are trying to celebrate the birth of the Savior at Christmas.

Two powerful things sometimes intersect in strange ways.  There is the revelation of God filled with promise and a thorn in me leaving me in deep pain.

The Apostle Paul was watching miracle after miracle in the churches he was planting throughout the Mediterranean.  Demons were being cast out, people were being physically healed, and people were giving their lives to Jesus as Savior.  In addition, there were all kinds of signs and wonders and revelations that the Holy Spirit was giving.

And yet, Paul was tormented by some kind of physical disease.  He prays for the Lord to heal him of the pain.  However, healing does not come.  While Paul should be filled with incredible joy and praise-filled worship in response to what God is doing in the churches, Paul is also experiencing a deep and menacing physical pain.  Paul knows Jesus is Savior and Healer but at the same time to tormented with the thought that Jesus is not delivering him or healing him from his thorn.

In II Corinthians 12:7 Paul describes what he is experiencing.  Paul writes; “…even considering the exceptional character of the revelations.  Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.”

At Christmas, there are many who understand what Paul is describing; the paradox of the good news of Jesus’ birth while still living with deep pain.  Many live with a thorn that continues to irritate, aggravate, and exasperate.

I imagine you know someone who is living with a thorn that gets in the way of their celebration of the good things in life and being grateful for the amazing grace of God.  Take a moment this week to sit with that person.  Listen to their story, pray if they are open, and remind them that Jesus can do miracles in and through the person who loves Jesus but is still hurting today.

When you and your friend see the light of Jesus’ love, your hearts will be filled with delight in the Lord even when the thorn is still causing them pain.

Take Delight In The Lord!

Doug