The Thorn
Sunday 1st June 2025
Therefore, in order to keep me from being conceited,
I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in your weakness.
2 Corinthians 12:7-9 (NIV)
The Thorn
Margaret Snell Nicholson was an American woman who died in 1957, having suffered from four incurable diseases and struggled with pain for more than thirty-five years, an invalid, bound to her bed.
And yet her spirit was so transcendently triumphant through for those many weary years, that she wrote some of the finest Christian poetry (adapted from womenofchristianity.com). Among her poems is one called The Thorn,’ which reflects on the experience the apostle Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 12 as his ‘thorn in my flesh.’
I stood a mendicant [beggar] of God before His royal throne
And begged him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart
I cried, “But Lord this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange, a hurtful gift, which Thou hast given me.”
He said, “My child, I give good gifts and gave My best to thee.”
I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.
Ste Casey quotes this poem in his book, I Prayed and Nothing Changed, which is our current ‘book of the term’, and is itself an extended reflection on Paul’s ‘thorn.’ It’s the last line of the poem that particularly gripped me, with its precious thought that the Lord may indeed ‘[take] the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides his face.’
In other words, there are things about the Lord that we may never see were it not for some kind of ‘thorn’ in our lives. How we would like to have God’s grace and his power without experiencing our weakness, to see his face without having to feel the thorn, but that doesn’t seem to be the way he works (or that we are wired).
Prayer
Loving Father, you are good. Help me to trust you as you give and as you take away. I pray that the thorns that hurt so much will turn out to help me love you more. Please don’t let me waste what I have been given, but bless my troubles and hurts so that through them, I know and show Jesus more. Amen. (Ste Casey).
Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)