I was looking through some “clip art” trying to find just the right thing for a project I was working on today and the Holy Spirit showed me, as He so often does, another bit of revelation… a symbol of Christmas, mirrored some thirty years after Christ’s birth, in a symbol of His death. The object was the Christmas wreath…
As I saw this small green circle dressed in red, I was reminded of the Bougainvillea plant that flourishes here in the Southwest. This plant grows rapidly, gracefully draping itself over anything in its path. Its branches grow thick and green and, during the several flowering seasons that we have here in Arizona, bright red, hot pink and fuchsia petals can be seen decorating the foliage. These plants sway and dance in the breeze and look soft and inviting, but there is a dark side to these beauties… they are covered with thorns!
The smaller thorns at the tips of the plant sport new growth and are fairly harmless unless you are wearing a sweater! The closer you get to the root of the plant, however, the sharper and more painful these thorns become.
When I was first introduced to this plant, I thought of the crown of thorns that the Roman soldiers made to “decorate” the “King of the Jews” that was in their charge. I dismissed it after a few moments, thinking how painful that crown must have been. Some time passed and I was reminded again in a more tangible way!
It was summer and I had just begun to prune one of the plants growing in our yard. I was wearing gloves… and flip-flops , since it was about 110 in the shade! I was being very protective of my arms and hands as I gently maneuvered my pruning shears, trimming and cutting the long branches into smaller pieces as I placed them in the large plastic bag that we used for yard trimmings. The plastic on this bag was thicker than most, so I was feeling good about the assignment and, despite the sweat… yes, SWEAT… pouring off my face, I was enjoying the productive exercise and felt safe from these very sharp thorns.
I stepped back to look at the bush from a distance and pain shot through my foot as if someone had poked it with a dagger! I lifted my foot to see what was causing the pain and there, lodged in my flip-flop was a very long, very sharp thorn attached to a thick section of branch that had missed the lawn bag. This thorn had gone through the bottom of the spongy flip-flop material and lodged in the arch of my foot.(Note to self: Do NOT wear flip-flops while trimming Bougainvilia!) I whipped off my sandal and watched as the blood flowed… and was instantly back to Jesus and those crass, hard, uncaring soldiers who shoved the make-shift crown-of-thorns on his tender brow and watched the blood flow, laughing and pounding it deeper into His flesh to make sure it wouldn’t fall off during His long walk to Golgotha, the Place of the Skull.
This one thorn caused me great pain. I couldn’t imagine what a “crown” would be like! And this was just ONE of the many things that Jesus endured for me, even though He could have called ten thousand angels to come to His defense! He loved me enough to stay the course… to see the plan of God through to the end… because of that great love!
Since He was God, and knew the end from the beginning, He had already seen this day before He experienced it. He knew why He was coming to Earth… it was no surprise. And he did it for me… and for you!
So as you glance at the wreaths decorating homes or shopping malls, remember the amazing Gift of love whose birth we celebrate… His name is Jesus!