Thorns and Thistles

Any time, any place, any where in the world that I have visited, that I have read so much about, my mind swarms with memories. Such was the case when I visited Notre Dame in Paris for the first time. I walked down the main aisle to the front and looked at the great Rose window. But, most of all, I thought of my translation in college French class of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Victor Hugo wrote many great works of literature, perhaps his greatest words, “adversity makes men.”

Mine has been a hard life, there were times when I envied those who have had such a soft life...no thorns, no thistles, no problems, just a carefree existence. Then, I met men and women who had had a hard life, their paths full of challenge. The rocky road is what made them what they are, usually men and women of character. The Garden, was a romantic existence, free of problems, free of work. But, because God gave us free will, man rebelled, and we have the thorns and thistles introduced to our living. Thorns and thistles, problems of life, are a real challenge. Thorns represent sin, just as thorns will take over a field, sin will take over a life, a church, a culture, a country. There is nothing pleasant about fighting thorns, the only way you get rid of thorns in the field, around your garden, in your crops, is to just take a bush axe and wail away, then, you rake them up and burn them.

Life is a matter of fighting sin/thorns in your own living, the sin/thorns involving your family, sin/thorns invading your church, sin/thorns taking over your government. With God's help, you do what you do because you believe what you believe, depending on God to do the rest. He will eventually get rid of the sin/thorns of the earth with fire.

One thing that has amazed me in my life, is the ability of people to get knocked down by catastrophe, disease, despair, but to get right up and start all over. The capacity of the human spirit to overcome adversity is a mystery to every psychologist and psychiatrist in the world. But, trees that can overcome thorn bushes, just think of the magnificence of trees, what they contribute to mankind: lumber to build things, fruit for food, medicine, syrup, shade. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. (Isaiah 55:13)

It is only when you compare the useless thorn bushes with productive trees that you understand human nature and the human spirit. I thought of this when I considered the thirty three miners trapped in the San Jose gold/copper mine in Chile. Just think of being trapped that far underground, it takes several months for your retrieval. Everyday, around the world, men go underground in the mining industry, knowing the dangers involved, you would think that such work would have ended long ago. You could say that same thing about many hazardous vocations: airline pilots, military in submarines, or even taxicab drivers. Because of man's love for adventure, and often because of the pay of these hazardous jobs, the brain is wired to take risks. We are evidently wired to overcome defeat, to get up and get over disappointment and despair, to fight thorns and protect trees.

Recently, in Argentina, one couple, so disappointed with the conditions in the world, not willing to carry on. First shot their baby, and then killed themselves. It just so happened that through the grace of God, the baby survived. Suicide has become the way of escape for many young people, particularly members of the military. Many deaths are cleverly disguised for insurance purposes, there are probably more suicides than we know. Fortunately, a man or woman never challenged by the harsh realities of the life and death struggle...who have never seen war, disaster, financial ruin, ravages of disease, dismay of disability. Pray that you will never see the ashes of a home fire, the fresh grave of your child, the flag-draped casket, the smell of critical care unit in the hospital. But when you do, hope that you have the internal fortitude, the capacity within the human spirit to start over.

Each year, $6 billion is lost in home fires in America, fire does not discriminate, the mansion can burn just as the shack, disease does not discriminate, nor does flood, nor does accident. My hard-working parents were distraught after the barn burned, whereas they picked up and started over, they never missed a service in the house of God. As I have written in many commentaries, many jobs as a college student, on weekends I worked at a large cemetery, one Sunday, two baby burial, at the large mausoleum( this is the mausoleum where Elvis was interred until moving him to Graceland). A wealthy family interred their baby in a gold casket, on the other side of the cemetery, the cheapest plot available, another family brought a small baby's casket to the cemetery in a pickup truck. Deaths of two babies, a large limousine hearse carrying a gold casket, small pick up truck carrying a cheap casket, a great difference in what money can do for families, but no difference in the grief of two mothers. In all cases, old/young, rich/poor, you need the grace of God, the spirit of redemption to pick up and keep going, to see you through times of briars, thorns and adversity.