Thank you for the thorns

 

 

 

  Sandra felt as low as the heels of her Birkenstocks 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 her ease.

 

  During this Thanksgiving week she would have delivered a son. She grieved

 

  over her loss.  As if that weren't enough, her husband's company threatened

 

  a transfer.  Then her sister, whose holiday visit she  coveted,  called

 

  saying she could not come. What's worse, Sandra's friend  infuriated her

 

  by suggesting her grief was a God-given path to maturity that would allow

 

  her to empathize with others who suffer.  "She has no idea what I'm

 

  feeling," thought Sandra with a shudder.  Thanksgiving? Thankful for what?,

 

  she wondered.  For a careless driver whose truck was hardly scratched when

 

  he rear-ended her?  For an airbag that saved her life but took  that  of her

 

  child?  "Good afternoon, can I help you?"  The shop clerk's approach

 

  startled   her.

 

 

 

  I....I need an arrangement," stammered Sandra.  "For Thanksgiving?  Do you

 

  want beautiful but ordinary, or would you  like  to challenge the day with a

 

  customer favorite I call the Thanksgiving  Special?"  asked the shop clerk.

 

  "I'm convinced that flowers tell stories,"  she continued.  "Are you looking

 

  for something that conveys gratitude'  this  Thanksgiving?  "Not exactly!"

 

  Sandra blurted out. "In the last five months,   everything  that could go

 

  wrong has gone wrong."

 

 

 

 

 

  Sandra regretted her outburst,  surprised when the shop clerk said, "I have

 

  the perfect arrangement for  you."  Then the door's small bell rang, and the

 

  shop clerk said, "Hi, Barbara...let me get your order." She politely excused

 

  herself and walked toward a small workroom, then quickly reappeared,

 

  carrying an arrangement of  greenery, bows, and long-stemmed thorny roses.

 

  Except the ends of the rose  stems were neatly snipped: there were no

 

  flowers.

 

 

 

  "Want this in a box?"  asked the clerk.  Sandra watched for the customer's

 

  response. Was this a joke? Who  would want rose stems with no flowers! She

 

  waited for laughter, but  neither  woman laughed.   Yes, please," Barbara

 

  replied with an appreciative smile.   "You'd think after three years of

 

  getting the special, I wouldn't be  so  moved  by its significance, but I

 

  can feel it right here, all over again."  she   said as she gently tapped

 

  her chest.

 

 

 

  "Ooh," stammered Sandra, "that lady just left with, uh...  she just left

 

  with  no flowers!"   "Right. I cut off the flowers. That's the Special. I

 

  call it the  Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet."

 

 

 

  "Oh, come on, you can't tell me someone is willing to pay for  that!"

 

  exclaimed Sandra.   "Barbara came into the shop three years ago feeling very

 

  much  like you feel today," explained the clerk.  "She thought she had very

 

  little  to  be Thankful for.  She had lost her father to cancer, the family

 

  business was failing, her son was into drugs, and she was facing  major

 

  surgery."

 

 

 

  "That same year I had lost my husband," continued the clerk, "and  for the

 

  first time in my life, had just spent the holidays alone.

 

  I had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too great a debt to

 

  allow any travel."   "So what did you do?" asked Sandra.   "I learned to be

 

  thankful for thorns," answered the clerk quietly.

 

 

 

  "I've  always thanked God for good things in life and never thought to ask

 

  Him  why those good things happened to me, but when bad stuff hit, did I

 

  ever ask!   It took time for me to learn that dark times are important. I

 

  always  enjoyed the 'flowers' of life, but it took thorns to show me the

 

  beauty of God's comfort. You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when

 

  we're  afflicted, and from His consolation we learn to comfort others."

 

 

 

 

 

  Sandra sucked in her breath as she thought about the very thing  her friend

 

  had tried to tell her. "I guess the truth is I don't  want  comfort. I've

 

  lost a baby and I'm angry with God." Just then someone else walked in the

 

  shop. "Hey, Phil!" shouted  the clerk to the balding, rotund man.   "My wife

 

  sent me in to get our usual Thanksgiving arrangement...  twelve thorny,

 

  long-stemmed stems!" laughed Phil as the clerk handed  him   a

 

  tissue-wrapped arrangement from the refrigerator.   "Those are for your

 

  wife?" asked Sandra incredulously. "Do you  mind me asking  why she wants

 

  something that looks like that?"

 

 

 

  "No...I'm glad you asked," Phil replied. "Four years ago my wife   and I

 

  nearly divorced.  After forty years, we were in a real mess,  but   with the

 

  Lord's grace and guidance, we slogged through problem after   problem. He

 

  rescued our marriage.  Jenny here (the clerk) told me she  kept a  vase of

 

  rose stems to remind her of what she learned from "thorny"  times, and that

 

  was good enough for me. I took home some of those stems.  My wife and I

 

  decided to label each one for a specific 'problem' and give thanks for what

 

  that problem taught us."   As Phil paid the clerk, he said to Sandra, "I

 

  highly recommend the  Special!"

 

 

 

  "I don't know if I can be thankful for the thorns in my life."   Sandra said

 

  to the clerk.  "It's all too...fresh."   "Well," the clerk replied

 

  carefully, "my experience has shown me   that thorns make roses more

 

  precious. We treasure God's  providential  care  more during trouble than at

 

  any other time. Remember, it was a  crown  of  thorns that Jesus wore so we

 

  might know His love. Don't resent the thorns."

 

 

 

  Tears rolled down Sandra's cheeks. For the first time since the accident,

 

  she loosened her grip on resentment. "I'll take those  twelve long-stemmed

 

  thorns, please," she managed to choke out.  "I hoped you would," said the

 

  clerk gently. "I'll have them ready   in a minute."

 

 

 

  "Thank you. What do I owe you?"   "Nothing. Nothing but a promise to allow

 

  God to heal your heart.   The first year's arrangement is always on me." The

 

  clerk smiled  and  handed a card to Sandra.  "I'll attach this card to your

 

  arrangement, but maybe you'd  like to read it first."   It read:

 

  "My God, I have never thanked You for my thorns.  I have thanked You a

 

  thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns. Teach me the

 

  glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my  thorns.  Show me that I

 

  have climbed closer to You along the path of pain.  Show  me  that, through

 

  my tears, the colors of your rainbow look much more brilliant."

 

 

 

     -- Author Unknown-