Check for thorns

“[As] a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so [is] a parable in the mouth of fools.” Proverbs 26:9

I love this imagery.  Picture a drunk guy… really wasted… not just a buzz.  He grabs a hold of rose, forgetting about the thorns… and watches as it red appears not just from the petals, but from his hand.

He laughs it off… maybe makes a joke.  But quickly dismisses it because he can’t feel it anyway.  He is too intoxicated.

But he will sober up…

And it will hurt.

And in that he will learn that “just because you don’t feel it now… doesn’t mean that it would eventually hurt.”

The Bible says that parables are the same way.  People hear them.  They might dismiss them, or joke about them because they are too numb from life or the scars of the past.  Or perhaps they are drunk from the wine of the queen of this world, believing all the lies that the enemy spews.

Still, without them realizing it… it sinks in.

And eventually… maybe not today, or tomorrow, or months from now… it will hurt.  They will be convicted by the Holy Spirit of their sin. 

They will feel the thorns.  And they will think of His… the ones He endured with the crown on the cross.

I never thought about it, but we are to be giving people thorns.  Not in a way that hurts them.  Not with a cruel intent… but with a hope that they are received with the Rose of Sharon.

Keep speaking truth into the lives of those you love.  They may politely dismiss it.  They might laugh it off or mock. But it will sink in.

Do what you are to do, and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

SDG