This week we launch our second animated reading. The next four weeks of blog posts will draw from themes in the poem. If you like the video, please share with others.
For Every Thorn There is a Rose
There once was a man who had a thorn.
Upon him it struck
And to his dismay,
Remained permanently stuck.
˜
To God three times he prayed
The awful nuisance to take away.
˜
From heaven above
The Lord looked down
With tears in his eyes and pain on his face
There he cried,
“Behold the Rose! Behold My grace!
The thorn I’ll not remove, for I love too much.
Only in brokenness… that soil
Of weakness and desperation,
Will the lovely Rose grow,
Will My grace bloom.”
˜
We all love roses,
We all hate pain,
But for every thorn there is a Rose.
˜
Many desire the Rose,
For therein is life eternal and fullness of living –
But the way of the Rose
Is the way of the thorn.
˜
Many seek the Rose, but at the
Testing of the thorn
Most fall away.
˜
“Child, child, love the Rose.
Embrace your thorn as faithful friend.”
˜
At the testing of the thorn, divine grace
Turns my pain and tears to peace and joy,
Where all my need is swallowed up
Within the Rose.
˜
We all love roses,
We all hate pain,
But for every thorn there is a Rose.
˜
The choice is yours and
The choice is mine;
On the journey to the Rose,
Must every one born
Face the terrible testing
Of the thorn.
This poem has been adapted from the poem by the same name in David Trementozzi, Light for the Dark Night: Embracing a Heart of Holy Desperation (Maitland, Fl.: Xulon, 2005).
