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Out of the Thorns
Yenny Kartika Official Writer
1298Hebrews 12:11
No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful.
Bible Reading for a Year [bible]psalm119:1-88[/bible];
[bible]icori7[/bible]; [bible]isamu1-2[/bible]
The gorse bush is a shrub that was imported from Europe and now grows
wild in the Pacific Northwest. It has dense, dark green shoots, and in
springtime it provides a dazzling display of fragrant, vibrant yellow flowers.
But it’s best known by hikers and fishermen for its vicious spines.
Remarkably, the flowers grow right out of the thorns.
Missionary and artist Lilias Trotter wrote, “The whole year round the thorn
has been hardening and sharpening. Spring comes—the thorn does not drop off, it
does not soften. There it is as uncompromising as ever, but half-way up appear
two brown fuzzy balls, mere specks at first, that break at last—straight out of
last year’s thorn—into a blaze of golden glory.”
So it is with the suffering that accompanies God’s chastening. Just when
our situation seems hopeless and hardest to bear, tiny signs of life appear
that will soon burst into bloom. Take the toughest issue, the most difficult
place. There, God in His grace can cause His beauty to be seen in you.
No chastening seems pleasant at the time, “Yet when it is all over we can see that it has quietly produced the fruit of real goodness in the characters of those who have accepted it in the right spirit”
God's hand of discipline is a hand
of love.
