"And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Paul describes infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions and all other forms of weakness as thorns in the flesh. It may seem to us that we were given quite a lot more thorns than it seems like anyone else we know has to deal with. Like Paul, we may have besought the Lord thrice or even a hundred times to remove these thorns from our flesh, and still they persist. Why? Can't God see the thorns cutting into our flesh and causing us pain? Of course He can. But as much as it pains Him to see us crying out for relief, our Heavenly Father has a plan for us and our thorns. As the Lord says, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." We can go about doing good and standing as witnesses of God even when we have thorns in our flesh, even when we are facing grave illnesses or deep personal losses or addictive habits we can't seem to shake or difficulties regulating anger or other strong emotions. His grace is sufficient to sustain our imperfect, weak attempts at being examples unto the believers. We may have a hard time believing this, but God needs us, imperfect and weak and full of thorns as we are. It is only through our weakness that God's strength can be made perfect. God can't go stomping around this fallen and imperfect world in all of His glory and perfection because we would all be burnt to a crisp by the searing light of His glory. So God works through us, weak as we are, and in small and subtle ways His grace strengthens and ennobles and perfects our weakness and makes the world around us a slightly better place. And that is why God will not remove the thorns right away. The thorns pierce through our flesh and leave openings through which the Lord pours His grace into our souls. God can't remove the thorns because they are His way into our hearts. Which means, the more thorns we have, the more ways God has to reach us and to fill us up with His grace and power and strength. That is why Paul glories and takes pleasure in his infirmities. He knew that when he was first weak, he could then become strong. God will take each one of the thorns of our flesh and He will fashion out of them a crown of glory to echo the crown of thorns placed upon the head of His Only Begotten Son. The more thorns we have, so much the greater shall be our crown of thorns and glory in the end. I hope that we can all recognize that the thorns in our flesh are the quickest way for God to enter our hearts and that we will see in these thorns the opportunity to draw closer to God and to let Him into our lives more fully and completely, and that we will humbly and bravely and selflessly continue to love and serve our neighbors despite the thorns in our flesh so that in our weakness God's strength can be made perfect.
