Beyond the Thorns

Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses.
 
     Alphonse Karr
 

Continuing our series on gratitude this week, we thought it would be appropriate to acknowledge how hard it is to be grateful sometimes. It seems that it’s a mark of the human condition to focus on the “thorns”—the problems, the weaknesses, the vulnerabilities, the shortcomings, the setbacks, the wrongs, and the heartaches. We are all too quick to find what isn’t perfect and what isn’t right—about ourselves, about circumstances, and about each other. And, when the “thorns“ are our focus, we can never find joy, satisfaction, or peace. One of the hardest things for us to do is to be grateful in spite of the darkness around us.

A few weeks ago, a group of younger leaders from Tom’s church went to visit a group of older leaders from another church. The average age from our group was approximately 35 years old. The average age of the other church’s group was approximately 80 years old. As we sat around the dinner table that evening, we all started sharing our life-journeys. For many people, growing older is viewed with dread; old age is too often seen as a descent into one of life’s darker (or darkest) seasons. But not for this group of 80 something’s. There was one man, in particular, who shared his passion for bird watching. He spoke passionately and excitedly about an upcoming trip with his buddies to Florida. He anticipated seeing over 200 species of birds there. His sense of joy as he shared was the joy we would have expected coming from a ten-year-old; his sense of wonder, anticipation, and adventure was infectious—he was the picture of gratitude for what he was about to do. Yes, when you get to be 80 years of age there are many things in life that may be different than they were before; you know that your time on this earth is fleeting. You don’t have the strength and mobility you once had and the illusion of an unlimited future. Yet, those “thorns” were not stopping that man from doing what he absolutely loved to do.

He saw the “rose” amidst the thorns that old age can bring. And he determined to smell that rose, to savor its fragrance, and to see its beauty anyway.

In our lives, the potential for darkness is all around us. In fact, the reality of darkness is always there. There is always some problem, some weakness, some vulnerability, some shortcoming, some wrong, and some heartache. But there is also always some rose to see—a laugh to be shared, a word of encouragement to be spoken, an answer to be found, an adventure to be lived, a passion to be awakened.

We can curse the thorns in our lives all we want. But the thorns will always be there. The challenge is to see beyond the thorns, to the beautiful rose in the midst of them.

Photo by Alina Sofia on Unsplash