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Day by day and with each passing moment
Strength I find to meet my trials here.
Trusting in my Savior’s wise bestowment
I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure
Gives unto each day what He deems best
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure
Mingles toil with peace and rest.

Every day the Lord Himself is near me
With a special blessing for each hour.
All my cares He fain would bear and cheer me,
He whose name is Counselor and Power.
The protection of His child and treasure
Is a charge that on Himself, He laid.
“ As your days, your strength shall be in measure,”
This the pledge to me He made.

Help me then in toil and tribulation
So to trust Thy promises, O Lord.
That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation
Offered me within Thy holy Word.
Help me Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,
E’re to take as from a Father’s hand,
One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,
Till I reach the Promised Land.

~Lina Sandell

The Thorn Story

Sandra felt as low as the heels of her Birkenstocks as she pushed against a November gust and the florist shop’s door. Her life had been easy, like a spring breeze.

Then in the fourth month of her second pregnancy, a minor automobile accident stole her ease. During this Thanksgiving week, she would have delivered a son. She grieved her loss. As if that wasn’t enough, her husband’s company threatened a transfer. Then her sister, whose holiday visit she coveted, called saying that she could not come. What’s worse, Sandra’s friend infuriated her by suggesting her grief was a “God-given” path to maturity, that would allow her to empathize with others who suffer.

“Had she lost a child? NO—she has no idea what I’m feeling.” Sandra shuddered.

Thanksgiving? “Thankful for what?” she wondered. “For a careless driver whose truck was hardly scratched when he rear-ended her? For an airbag that saved her life, but took that of her child?”

“Good afternoon, can I help you?” The flower shop clerk’s approach startled her. “Sorry,” said Jenny, “I just didn’t want you to think I was ignoring you.”

“I...I need an arrangement,” said Sandra.

“For Thanksgiving?”

Sandra nodded.

“Do you want ‘Beautiful but Ordinary’, or would you like to challenge the day with a customer favorite I call the ‘Thanksgiving Special’”?

Jenny saw Sandra’s curiosity and continued, “I am convinced the flowers will tell stories, and that each arrangement insinuates a particular feeling. Are you looking for something that conveys gratitude this Thanksgiving?”

“Not exactly,” Sandra blurted. “Sorry, but in the last five months, everything that could go wrong has.” Sandra regretted her outburst, but was surprised when Jenny said, “I have the perfect arrangement for you.”

The door’s small bell suddenly rang. “Barbara, hi!” Jenny said. She politely excused herself from Sandra, and walked toward a small workroom. She quickly reappeared, carrying a massive arrangement of green bows and long-stemmed thorny roses; only the ends of the rose stems were neatly snipped, no flowers. “Want this in a box?” Jenny asked Barbara.

Sandra watched for Barbara’s response. “Was this a joke?” she thought. “Who would want rose stems with no flowers!” She waited for laughter, for someone to notice the absence of flowers atop the thorny stems, but neither woman did.

“Yes, please. It’s exquisite!”, said Barbara. “You’d think after three years of getting the special, I’d not be so moved by its significance, but it’s happening again. My family will love this one! Thanks.”

Sandra stared. “Why so normal a conversation about so strange an arrangement?” she wondered. “Aaaaaaaa”, said Sandra, pointing. “That lady...just left with....”

“Yes?” replied Jenny.

“Well...she had no flowers!” blurted Sandra.

“Yep, that’s the special. I call it the ‘Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet’.”

In spite of herself, Sandra chuckled and said “But why do people pay for that?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“I couldn’t leave this shop without knowing! I’d think about nothing else!”

“That might be good,” said Jenny.

“Well,” she explained, “Barbara came into the shop three years ago, feeling very much like you feel today. She thought she had very little to be thankful for. She had lost her father to cancer, the family business was failing, her son was into drugs, and she faced major surgery.”

“Ouch,” said Sandra.

Jenny continued, “That same year, I lost my husband. I assumed complete responsibility for the shop, and for the first time, spent the holidays alone. I had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too great a debt to allow any travel.”

“What did you do?”

“I learned to be thankful for thorns.”

Sandra’s eyebrows lifted as she asked, “Thorns?”

Jenny replied, “I’m a Christian, Sandra. I’ve always thanked God for good things in life, and I never thought to ask Him why good things happened to me. But when hard times hit, did I ever ask! It took time to learn that dark times are important. I always enjoyed the flowers of life, but it took thorns to show me the beauty of God’s comfort. You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when we are afflicted, and from His consolation, we learn to comfort others.”

Sandra gasped, “A friend read that passage to me, and I was furious! I guess the truth is, I don’t want comfort. I’ve lost a baby, and I’m angry with God.” Jenny started to ask Sandra to “go on”, when the door’s bell diverted their attention.

“Hey Phil!” shouted Jenny, as a balding rotund man entered the shop. She gently touched Sandra’s arm, and moved to welcome the customer.

“I’m here for twelve thorny long-stemmed stems!” Phil laughed heartily. “I figured as much,” said Jenny. “I’ve got them ready.” She lifted a tissue-wrapped arrangement from the refrigerated cabinet.

“Beautiful,” said Phil. “My wife will love them!”

Sandra could not resist asking, “These are for your wife?”

Phil saw that Sandra’s curiosity matched his when he first heard of the “Thorn Bouquet.”

Sandra said, “Do you mind me asking, ‘Why thorns?’”

“I’m glad you asked,” Phil replied. “Four years ago, my wife and I nearly divorced. After forty years, we were in a real mess: but we slogged through, problem by rotten problem. We rescued our marriage...our love really. Last year, at Thanksgiving, I stopped in here for flowers. I must have mentioned surviving a tough process, because Jenny told me that for a long time, she had kept a vase of rose stems...stems!...as a reminder of what she learned from ‘thorny times’. That was good enough for me! I took home stems! My wife and I decided to label each one for a specific ‘thorny’ situation, and give thanks for what the problem taught us. I’m pretty sure this ‘stem review’ is becoming a tradition.”

Phil paid Jenny, and thanked her again, and as he left, said to Sandra, “I highly recommend the Special!”

“I don’t know if I can be thankful for the ‘thorns’ in my life”, Sandra said to Jenny.

“Well, my experience says, that ‘thorns’ make roses more precious. We treasure God’s providential care more during trouble than at any other time.

“Remember, Sandra...Jesus wore a crown of ‘thorns’, so that we might know His love. Do not resent ‘thorns’.”

Tears rolled down Sandra’s cheeks. For the first time since the accident, she loosened her grip on resentment. “I’ll take twelve long-stemmed thorns, please”.

“I hoped you would,” Jenny said. “I’ll have them ready in a minute. Then, every time you see them, remember to appreciate both good and hard times. We grow through both.”

“Thank you, what do I owe you?” asked Sandra.

“Nothing. Nothing but a pledge to work toward healing your heart. The first year’s arrangement is always on me.” Jenny handed a card to Sandra, saying “I’ll attach a card like this to your arrangement, but maybe you’d like to read it first. Go ahead, read it.”

My God, I have never thanked Thee for my ‘thorn’! I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my ‘thorn’. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear. Teach me the value of my ‘thorns’. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbow. —George Matheson