This morning I spent a couple of hours gathering, loading and hauling two rather large trailer loads of clippings from my mother's yard for her, after some guys had been there to trim a lot of bushes and trees in her yard. It would have been five or six large loads except that I and my friend jumped up and down on top of the loads as we worked to pack them down. I warned my buddy ahead of time that he should watch out, because some of the bushes were really thorny and that I had already had one pass through my leather glove and into my thumb. He heeded my warning, but the thorns were too stout and even poked right through his soft-soled work boots.

The thorns made me think of Jesus. It took a few moments after I said, "Ouch!", and yanked my hand away and began to rub my thumb, but I did begin to think about Him. Of course at first I remembered the crown of thorns made for Him to wear. I remember hearing somebody talking about the kind of plant that was probably used to form that crown, indigenous to the area of Judea, with thorns the size of nails, (six-penny, for you carpenters), not the wimpy little thorns that we see around here. I thought today that the thorns we were dealing with were bad enough.
Where did thorns come from anyway? The Bible first mentions them in Genesis Chapter 3, Verse 18:

"17 Then to Adam He said, Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field."

Apparently, thorns were a result of the fall of man into sinfulness. This made me wonder about things. Jesus knew how things in this world would end, from the beginning. He knew that He would be going to the Cross, and He went willingly, to save us from our sins. He knew what He would have to endure, and I am convinced that He knew about the thorny crown that would disgracefully be placed upon upon His head. It's amazing to me that He allowed something which came about as a result of sin, to be used in His suffering, and the shedding of His precious blood, which paid for our sins.

One day, when He comes to this Earth again, and restores it to a righteous state of being, I hope that thorns will be on the 'banned from existence' list. I think they ought to be, because He wore them for us, once, for all.