The Thorn

2 Corinthians 12:7, “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!”

My step daughter was telling me about the bible study she is participating in, and said they were discussing the “dude that got beat up all the time.” (Apostle Paul) I asked if they discussed that as a member of the Sanhedrin he would have been required to be married.

She said, “No, but they did ask us to describe what we thought the ‘thorn might represent.’”

Jokingly I said it was probably his wife since she is never mentioned in the bible. But reality is that thorn is for us all the pinch to wake us up. Or should I say the pinch to wake our spirits up to the temporary and contaminated nature of life on earth. For Paul the thorn was there to keep him humble, to keep life and his role as a preeminent apostle in perspective. It was there so that he would not fall into the trap of not only reading but believing his own press clippings.

The earth, and therefore life, is contaminated by sin, and we remain in this literal spiritual cesspool to not only come to know God, but to be beacons of light for the other souls that join us in this thing call living. However, life has plenty of temporary pleasure to not only engage in, but to be distracted by, and to be drawn too. Given enough pleasure we all have an ego capable laying claim to it, and not just enjoying and pursuing more, but attributing the accumulation of pleasure to one’s own activities or worthiness. Like the American lie of because I am smart, I am rich.

And so God, by His grace allows us to feel the truth of life. That it is temporary and thorny maze. He allows us to remain in the thorny mire, so that as I said earlier we can be a beacon to the coming souls just as some other soul was a beacon for us.

Think about it. God loves His creation call mankind. With each human birth a spiritual birth of a soul is created as well. Earth for lack of a better description is a soul factory. We are here to recognize our soul, and to connect to God in spirit; then to live that connection. In living that connection we become the city on the hill, we become the lamp that is not covered.

Lest we forget that this is our purpose… to love God, then to love others as He has loved us, God has appropriated to everyone a thorn or thorns to keep them from being lulled to spiritual sleep by wealth, health, or fame. Though many exalt themselves to the highest of pedestals, I have yet to see anyone that has remain there.

This is the grace of God.