**This post was originally published previously, but I’m bringing it back to life since it’s a relevant, timely message that I think we could all benefit from hearing again with Easter right around this weekend’s corner. May you have a happy, holy Easter!
Happy Holy Week! Holy Week has always been one of my favorite weeks of the year. Namely because EASTER. What a beautiful, glorious, tremendous holiday amiright?! Jesus’ Passion has always just *mindboggled* me. Like, can we put ourselves back in those times for a hot sec and think about it? Can you imagine witnessing something as horrendous + horrible as the crucifixion…and then 3 days later, witnessing the mighty, powerful resurrection?
I had this idea pop into my brain when I was in church, so I figured it was worth jotting down for this week.
Quick backstory…
When I first started Coming Up Roses, the name felt super fitting at the time – I just didn’t realize how continually fitting it would be as my content grew + evolved. I got lucky in that regard…it stuck like glue. 😉 To me, Coming Up Roses perfectly embodies the idea that life is beautiful and meant to be lived fully – with neverending hope + a positive perspective – while still acknowledging the fact that beautiful does not mean perfect.
Darkness comes.
Sadness comes.
Bitterness, hardness, + gloominess comes.
And sometimes, it doesn’t go away – for awhile.
We have these undeniable thorns that pop out in life, often unexpectedly, ready to poke the balloon and rain on our every parade. Sometimes the thorns are pesky little buggers, and other times, they’re a few inch-long daggers that can really do some damage.
Every rose has its thorn.
Every Easter has its Good Friday.
Even Jesus was not without thorns.
Heck, He had a whole crown of ’em. And they were big, awful, ugly, and sharp. They weren’t even from His own doing.
In the Bible, thorns are not representive of the sin – thorns are the consequence of sin. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you.” {Genesis 3:18} Right from the beginning, it was always coming up thorns – because that is man. Jesus’ thorns weren’t similar to our thorns – His thorns WERE our thorns. He bore OUR thorns – our sins, our wrongdoings, our failures – in the ultimate form of sacrificial love(lovelove). I was reading this powerful read on the crown of thorns and it had such an interesting point that’s really a “duh” point…but absolutely mindboggling to truly ponder.
Jesus could’ve stopped it all at any moment.
He could’ve stopped the pain, the torture, the humiliation…He could’ve just ended it. He is GOD, after all. A limitless, boundless, supernatural being, only limited and bound by His newly human form. But even then – He is still God. And He is still without limit. And He chose to take on the consequences of our sin, to save us, because He loves us.
…isn’t that AMAZING?!?
I mean, that thought just makes me all emotional because THAT is a kinda lovelovelove that we don’t often see (like, ever) in today’s world.
Everything’s coming up thorns.
We face thorns in life – sometimes they’re our own fault, but sometimes…not so much. Sometimes our thorns are the literal consequences of our own actions, and sometimes they’re thorns in our side from someone else’s doing. Either way, beautiful life ain’t so beautiful all of the time.
But at the end of the day, it’s all about our perspective and our attitude through it all.
Everything’s coming up roses…and also coming up thorns. Every rose has its thorn, but every thorn has its rose.
And every Good Friday has its Easter Sunday.
No matter what thorn you’re bearing, pleasepleaseplease don’t ever give up HOPE. His promises never fail – and He has promised that all things work together for GOOD. {Romans 8:28} It might feel (or literally be) absolutely impossible to see in the moment, or at the time, or even years AFTER the time. But in the bigger picture – His picture, that surpasses our understanding – there is Good.
Good always wins.
It always has, and it always will.
Sending you lovelovelove + prayers for the most holy Good Friday and a beautiful, blessed Easter!
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