“And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). We may assume that the Lord allows us to have thorns in our flesh only so that we may be compelled to be humble and rely on Him and His grace. That is definitely an important part, but it is not the whole story. We may find ourselves carrying around these thorns for years and years and feel that we have well and truly plumbed the depths of humility and patience, but it is not removed. Why must we keep these thorns in? Why can't our infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions, and distresses be left in just long enough to remind us and then be pulled out? There are precious pearls of wisdom that we can only gain by allowing these irritants to stay inside of us for extended periods of time. I mean this literally. If the irritant, or thorn, to use Paul's word, was removed from an oyster as soon as it felt discomfort, then it could never produce a pearl. The oyster has to let that thorn sit there and irritate it for months or years while it is slowly smoothed out and polished until the thing that used to cause it such grief has now become so valuable. It is the same with us. When we have a thorn placed in our flesh, we can demand that it be removed at once, and end up with a dull and unremarkable little sliver no bigger than a mustard seed. Or, we can exercise patience and humility and trust the Lord and His timing and rely constantly on the Savior's grace to coat our weakness in layer after layer of luminous strength and gradual perfection, and instead of a little speck, we end up with a gleaming pearl the size of our first. Christ gives us thorns in the flesh not just so that we are not tempted to exalt ourselves above our measure but that through these thorns we can be exalted and receive a crown of glory laden with radiant pearls.
