My Glorious Thorn

Photo Credit: McCarter Theatre Center

(This week, in honor of the season, I’ll be posting parallels between A Christmas Carol and the issues we discuss on this blog)

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My Glorious Thorn

He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see. – A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

Tiny Tim emerges as one of the smartest characters in this Dickens classic. In the quote above, his father Bob remarks that Tim, while sitting in church, gloried in his weakness because it might point people to Christ, a simple perspective many older and (allegedly) wiser folks would miss. No doubt that kind of eternal perspective helps the boy maintain the cheerful, buoyant attitude he displays throughout the story. He was a cripple. That couldn’t be helped, but it could be used.

Paul said something similar in II Corinthians 12 when he described a “thorn in the flesh” that buffeted him. The specifics aren’t given, so we don’t know if the problem was physical (probably was) emotional or spiritual in nature. We do know it tormented him to the point he earnestly prayed for deliverance, getting the famous answer “My grace is sufficient for thee” in lieu of the healing he hoped for. God allowed him to suffer with an ailment, receive grace to deal with it, and even reach a point of glorying in it because it accented his weak humanity which, in turn, accented the power of God in him. After all, when weak and weakened vessels are used, you can’t help but credit the User. So Paul’s view went from “My miserable problem” to “My glorious thorn” when he saw the thorn’s purpose and value.

We need to be careful here, because this concept gets misused in ways that either minimize human suffering or justify human rebellion. First, when someone is buffeted with an illness or handicap, I‘m not inclined to say, “How wonderful! Just think how God will use this.” I hope you aren’t, either, because there’s a bit of glibness, and plenty of arrogance, in a statement like that, even if it’s true. “Weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15) comes to mind, making it more our job to comfort and care, and God’s to reveal to the weeper what eternal purposes there may be in his difficulty. Second, the fact I have a weakness of other sorts – temptations; inclinations; whatever – can certainly glorify God, in that He uses sinners like me. But I wouldn’t dare adopt a casual approach to sin in my life by saying, “Hey, my porn use, or my big mouth, or my greed, are my thorns. God forgives me, so I glory in them!” Yes, it’s glorious how God uses such imperfect stewards, but no, those sort of imperfections are to be mourned, not celebrated.

Considering the number of ways I daily sin, I really can appreciate Tiny Tim’s use of his ailment when he said “It might be pleasant for people to remember Him who made lame beggars walk.” In a similar vein I can say it might be pleasant for people to look at me and remember Him who forgave and restored sinners, even as I seek to refrain from the actions my tendencies might draw me towards.

Only from that position can I look at my thorn – oh, heck, my many thorns! – and say, “Glorious.”