Through the Thorns

He handed you a rose, but you responded by drawing a sword. 

He offered you new life, but you kept looking back once more.

He filled your heart with dreams, but you begged Him to let them go. 

He met all your needs, still you always preyed for more. 

He promised to be faithful, but your doubt kept you alone. 

Then you often wondered if He could really love you up close, like He said so. 

It wasn't that He left or that He let you down, it was a lack of confidence, you just didn't know who you were. 

It wasn't that He never spoke, it was that you never listened and seldom heard as His heart broke. 

When you're at the point of crashing down, when you can reach out and touch rock bottom, when you can no longer pretend to believe in a better next. When you are certain that He's left, because you never feel His peace anymore. Thereupon, He assures your inner soul that feelings are forever interchanging, why believe in them at all? Dig your nails into His hands, then you will never be forlorn.

Still, you had to let yourself bleed through the thorns and learn from the pain, in order to plant your roots into the centre of His Way. Now, together, we can grow fields of love for others to be adorned.

But you need to stay within His arms. You need to remember His name when it's dark. You need to hold on to the memories of when He rescued us from those guns. You need to rehearse the words of love He sang those many years ago, "you are beautiful like a rose, so much lovelier than I know, you are all that I ever long for..." 

And don't forget about the time He left a pink rose just lying there waiting for you on a park bench. 

You need to stay, you need to remember, you need to hold on, you need to rehearse, you can't forget. 

Our Saviour is not the one at fault. But He'll most certainly carry all our burdens as though they're His to the count.

His love is personal enough to know you better than you do and strong enough to lead you farther than you'll believe. But it's too big to carry alone, it's too powerful to contain. It's like the unrestrained ocean flooding the earth, overflowing past the brims into the sand, through the forrest, over the tops of the trees, under the dirt beneath our feet. Even in the desert, we are free. 

I'm so thankful that God searches our hearts. With Him, life is never ending. We just need to keep seeking Him as we're pushing through each storm. It's too easy to get distracted from what is His undisguised truth. We're so quick to let disappointment push us down the road of destitute. But no one can walk so far away for it to be too late. We give up on ourselves way before our loved ones ever could. But God, never would. Even when it feels like He mostly certainly has or most assuredly should. 

There's room for everyone we know, you know? 

It's more than a house. It's our home. 

He is home. 

The light is always on. 

“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.””

Matthew 11:28-30 NLT