When I was a young adolescent, I made my parents a gift—a mailbox. But it wasn’t just any mailbox—it was a Snoopy mailbox (the adorable dog from the cartoon strip, Peanuts, in case you’re not familiar with him).
I bought a kit, which supposedly had everything needed for the mailbox. As I assembled the mailbox, however, I discovered I needed more nails—many more nails, actually an entire box of additional nails.
How excited I was for them to open my gift! I envisioned their delight every time they went to get their mail.
To their credit, they didn’t laugh in my presence when they opened my gift. They didn’t ask me how many nails I had used—nor mention the many bent nails still sticking out of the wood. But they also didn’t put the mailbox at the end of the driveway.
It was a bad gift.
Good Gift, Bad Delivery
Not only have I given bad gifts in my life, but I’ve also arranged for bad deliveries of good gifts. I hate to admit that I was a grown-up when I shipped my dear friend a charming miniature lamp for her birthday—which I packed in a flimsy shoebox. It arrived with dents in the box and a smashed lampshade, no fault of the postal service.
It was a bad gift delivery on my part.
The Snoopy nailbox (pun intended) and the not-so-charming lamp may have elicited this comment from the recipients: “What kind of gift is this?”
The apostle Paul had the same response at a gift he received. In fact, he called this gift “a thorn.” The delivery of this gift was also bad: It showed up just as his ministry was getting going.
No Thank You, God
This gift was so painful to Paul that he asked God three times to take it back. Paul never said what the thorn was, just that it was constant and desperately unwanted.
Like Paul, in our own situations with unwanted “gifts,” we might ask, “What’s up, God?”
“Don’t you know that I’m here, serving you, making a difference in the world for you, and now I’ve got this on my plate as well?”
Of course, God knows, Paul. But he wants you to know some things, too:
1) He has a divine purpose for this gift. It will help you remember who you are and who God is. You won’t be so focused on the supernatural gifts that God has given you that you become in awe of yourself instead of in awe of him. You won’t think that you’re better than others because of what God has shown you from his sacred space. You’ll remember that you’re the one with limitations, not God
2) He wants you to depend upon his strength, not your own. He wants you to “live” his grace so that others know his grace, too. He wants you to know that no matter what happens in this world, he is more than enough for you. He wants you to have faith in a good God who loves you more than you can comprehend.
Even in the middle of his agony, then, Paul must have taken comfort in knowing his “thorn-gift” was stamped, sealed, and approved by God (even though it was delivered by a messenger of the evil one).
Where’s the Good in This Gift?
Paul knew God was working for his good. But sometimes we have great difficulty seeing God at work in our pain, especially if we’re suffering as a result of the evil inherent in a broken world and broken people. And sometimes we “gift” thorns to ourselves through unwitting (or even witting) choices, and we can’t get past the guilt to even think about redemptive suffering.
“Everything happens for a reason,” some people like to say, rather flippantly at times. Then tell me the reason my full-of-life-and-love friend suddenly developed Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Or the reason my grandfather beat my grandmother.
The reason, that we live in a violently broken, sin-filled world, is bearable only because there is a good God with good news.
The good news is the gospel, the announcement made at the birth of Jesus that someday, in the next age when Jesus returns, our world will be free from evil, sickness, and death because of the crucified and risen one. Then there will be no thorn-gifts.
What About Right Now?
But what about now, God? How do I live with my thorn-gift of ______ (fill-in-the-blank).
I’d fill in that blank with my recent thorn-gift of double-vision. Just when Covid was beginning, just when my mother was sick and dying, I developed an unusual way of looking at the world. My left eye started seeing images 18% bigger than my right eye—with its images down and to the right. The result is double vision, and no one knows why. It may have something to do with my macular pucker. Or it may not.
But at a time when I am finally writing full-time about God’s love, I see two lines hopping into one another on the computer.
And yes, I’ve prayed and prayed that God would heal my eye.
But instead of focusing on the thorn part of this “gift,” I’m learning to see (puns intended) how God is using it for my good, how he is taking something bad and making something better.
My double vision constantly reminds me of God’s love for me. In humility, I know that everything I do is only through the goodness and mercy of God. I’m constantly thankful for the many good gifts he has given me. I think less about my problems in this world and more of the joy, love, and peace in the world to come.
I am living Romans 8:28:
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (italics mine).
Aren’t you thankful for God’s purposes in the world? I can sleep at night knowing that nobody gets anything past those purposes. I think of Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers and reported as dead to his father. But God used that betrayal to save many lives (Genesis 50:20). We can trust our good God to use things meant to us harm to accomplish his good purposes.
Of course, no one welcomes a thorn-gift, even when we know, like Paul, that it comes special delivery from God. But we can be encouraged that our good God is in the business of regifting all such gifts for our good and for his good purposes!