Every Rose Has It's Thorn

Some days I feel like every time I turn around I get cut. A nick here, a scrape there. I suppose that is to be expected because as they say, "every rose has it's thorns." So I guess for every beautiful thing, every good thing we come into contact with we should expect a little pain? Is it inevitable? Or as Poison says, "every night has it's dawn. Every cowboy sings his sad, sad song."

So what should we do? Should we avoid the beauty that comes with the rose altogether? I don't think so. But we should be wary. The life we are given her on Earth is like that rose. We should appreciate it. Enjoy it for the beauty that is here. But we have to be careful of those darned thorns or else we will end up "choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature." (Luke 8:14)

Let me tell you what--sometimes I feel like I am that seed that fell among the thorns. I've heard the Word. I know what is expect of me. I know what I'm supposed to do. But I still get nicked by those dam thorns! The desires make me stick my face right down in the rose bush. They make me grab the flower without paying attention and before you know it, I'm bleeding again. Then I look in the mirror and see a cut up, bleeding idiot and I wonder, "what the heck was I thinking?"

But here is where I am more fortunate than Bret Michaels and C. C. DeVille and the rest of the band---the Lord is always waiting for ME to return. He's not going to find somebody new. I mean the world to Him. He's just waiting for me to realize how careless I was and to reconcile myself to Him.

Then, like the loving Father that He is--he will but salve on our wounds, bandage us back up and infuse us with His grace so that we can wear it like a glove so that we can enjoy the rose without sin cutting us all up. And like a loving gardener, he will place us in good soil so that we may hold His word in an :honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience." (Luke 8:15)