Thorn in My Flesh

Last Sunday, I attended a floral workshop in Dallas. Why? Because I know that it’s time to level up in my event planning skills. Although it was only one day, it was intense for me. I was attending the workshop alone, which I didn’t mind, but I had to work with strangers. And socialize.

Thankfully, the atmosphere was positive. People were eager to learn and practice. You could feel the excitement in the room. We split into groups organically to work on huge floral arrangements. I thought that I had removed all of the thorns from the roses that we were working with, but I was wrong. I grabbed a rose and dropped it as quickly as I grabbed it when a thorn pierced my thumb.

I returned back to my normal life on Monday. Celebrated my brother’s birthday all that day, with and without him. I went back to work Tuesday and debated with the great young minds of the future. I went to my class on Wednesday and gained some new insight. The whole time my thumb was tender to the touch.

On Thursday, I finally looked at my thumb closely. It was raised slightly and there was a small black speck. I couldn’t think of why my thumb would be so sore. And then I remembered the thorn.

I got a safety pin and some tweezers and tried all day Thursday to get it out. I was just making the pain worse. I would have moments when I thought that maybe I was being delusional. Then one of my little friends would hit my thumb in just the right way to let me know that there was in fact something in there.

What does one do when they can’t remove a thorn from their thumb? They go see their mother who is a surgical nurse and let her take care of it. It didn’t take long. My thorn was a thing of the past.

This experience made me think of Paul…from the Bible. He had a thorn in his flesh that wouldn’t go away. He asked the Lord to remove it three times. God responded that His grace was sufficient. Although my thorn was removed this time, I have other thorns that remain. You can’t see them, but they are ever present. Thankfully, so is God’s grace. #wepreach