by Rev. Aidan Moon

Joy from Thorns

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.

“Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

– Romans 5:2-5, English Standard Version

“Every rose has it’s thorn” – and cactus produce beautiful blooms in the spring.

There are plenty of prickly, painful things in this life. And yet, how is it that even the most painful of things can produce the most beauty in their season?

How can Paul say, “we rejoice in our sufferings”?

Only because of that which the suffering produces.

Even the cross of Jesus, on it’s own a horrible, painful, thorny event, can be “The Wondrous Cross” because of what came from it. Because of what it produces – new life, forgiveness, taking away the sin of the world.

All the prickly, poking things of this life can be seen anew in that light. The thorns, thistles, and even cactus spines are not in vain.

Jesus is alive! A flower emerges, even from the most painful of things.

What sufferings are you enduring right now? What might God be producing in you, by the power of His Holy Spirit, that Spirit he has poured out on his people? In the prickly, poking things, you are in good company. He loves you. Hold onto hope.

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado