Hedged by Thorns, Held by Grace

Jason lay in bed, weakened and restless, unaware that the thorns piercing his life were the very tools God was using to save him from himself. He lay sick in bed in the middle of the business day as the cool breeze from the window rushed over him. He wondered how it had come to this. It wasn’t the first time he had been here, and he hated every minute of it, but before it was all over, he would bless the Lord for the very thing that laid him low.

Life had been busy for Jason for months now. He worked for a Christian organization and managed to move up the ranks over the years. He had also continued to be busy with his volunteer work at church. Family life was also full and required quite a bit of his time. Even with all of this going for him, he felt empty and beaten down.

He retraced his steps over the past year and could not see any significant misstep, but he was off course. The most pointed indicator of his waywardness was his lack of interest in the things of God. This indifference toward God was new for him. His first love had grown cold. It has been growing cold for months now, but the thing about a heart that is no longer enamored with the things of God is that you don’t recognize it precisely because your heart is cold.

Jason had begun to desire a name for himself, and people were starting to give him that recognition. Self-love had begun to take over. It felt good initially, but he quickly learned it had no stability. Each advancement only led to a new horizon he needed to experience. As he attained new heights, you would think the thrill accompanying it would also increase, but it was the opposite. The law of diminishing returns made each new horizon less satisfying than the one before. His drift into selfishness had left him cold, and with each step lower spiritually, the enemy offered new temptations to slake his thirst for self-glory. Jason, usually a man of honor, began drinking from those wells.

Here is the good news for the child of God: when our love grows cold, our Father’s love does not. The Lord set up a hedge of protection around Jason. However, it worked in the exact opposite direction that you might expect. It was a hedge of thorns, not to keep the enemy out. God set it up to keep Jason from continuing down his sinful path—God was keeping Jason in.

Jason’s sinful nature was pulling him away from the narrow path. Whenever he would begin to chase after sin, his blessed Savior would allow the thorns to sink into his flesh.

The thorns were varied. Some of them were health-related. As Jason would wander, the Lord would drive a thorn into his health in one way or another. If he wanted to pursue a new level of self-glorification, his shepherd would ensure there was a devastating error in his work. If Jason were working on a project that would be sure to raise his accolades, the Lord would allow an adversary in his midst to work against him and foil his plans. And if he planned to neglect his family, the Lord would lay him in his sick bed for weeks.

Jason was now so bloodied by all these thorns he began to wake up to the reality of his drifting heart. Before he realized what God was doing, he shook his fist at every thorn that tore his flesh. However, after he saw the folly of his ways, he began to bless God for the thorns—they were an expression of God’s faithfulness to him.

As he lay sick in bed, considering the error of his ways, a specific thought about the grace of God stirred his soul. It pulled him from regret and shame back to his first love. When Jesus was dying on the cross for Jason’s sins, he wore a crown of thorns. The sinless Savior wore a key aspect of the curse upon his head as he died so Jason could escape that curse.

Jason’s desire for self-glory began to die again that day, and his heart was filled with gratitude to his Savior. As he lay there lame from the chastisement he was facing, he went from hating every minute of it to praising his Savior for it.

Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. – Hosea 2:6

-D. Eaton