Thorns and Thistles 

There is such beauty in the Arizona landscapes. Yet despite the appearance of a gentle meadow filled with lush greenery, colorful landscapes and beautiful flowers, it is the callous thinker who believes he or she can run headlong into this meadow without encountering hardship and pain! 

Everything in Arizona seems to bite, sting or poke! Even the plants are armed to the teeth with barbs. As I ponder this on one of my high-desert walks I consider God’s words to Adam at the fall: “Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; With hard labor you shall eat from it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; Yet you shall eat the plants of the field; (Gen 3:17-18) 

Why thorns and thistles? Why wasn’t death enough? As I ponder this a theory comes to mind: 

Consider the characteristics of thorns and thistles: 

-They hurt 
-They latch on and hamper movement 
-Beauty (as in a rose, a Bougainvillea or the many flowering cacti) is often accompanied by painful thorns 
-They choke out other more useful plants 
-They stifle the good fruits 

There are lessons in the thorns: 

—Sin is represented: it hampers our good fruits and can choke out Godly characteristics in a person 
—Beauty of the world (flesh) is not without danger, like pride and jealousy, and can lead to hurt 
—Learning to deal with thorns as we toil teaches us to deal with the thorns of sin as we toil in our faith 
—The crown of thorns can, in my opinion, symbolize the painful sins born on the cross by our Savior that we may one day suffer them no more! 

God has a purpose for everything, even the added hardships added to man in addition to death. Man failed to appreciate the perfect Garden he was in from the beginning. God shows us our need for Him and for Christ’s love and salvation in the very vegetation around us. There is coming, soon, a day when we will no longer have sin in our lives, nor thorns in our path.