Crystal Writes A Blog

My Thornbush has Roses

Many years ago, I heard someone say, “We can complain that our rose bush has thorns, or we can rejoice that our thorn bush has roses.” I didn’t know at the time that it was a lesson in the art of reframing similar to making lemonade out of life’s lemons. Somehow, I’ve always thought in these terms. Maybe it was a natural development of survival, or maybe I learned it from watching the movie Pollyanna when I was young.

Thorn bushes, to me, are the basic troubles and trials in this life that are part of living in a fallen world. For Adam and Eve, the thorns and thistles were outside the garden and not part of their life until after the fall. Then, all kinds of troubles they were not supposed to deal with became life companions. Death and sickness are probably some of the worst thorns they dealt with and that we still deal with in today’s world.

But we also have roses. God didn’t abandon humanity to endure only the thorns of life’s troubles, but He gave us an abundance of things like hope, joy, peace, and love to bloom right alongside the thorns. Sickness and wounds carry the hope of healing; broken relationships carry the hope of restoration; and death carries the hope of eternal life with The Lord and with those we loved in this life. But it’s not always easy to focus on the hope, no matter how wonderful the blooms. Sometimes, the thorns just hurt a little too much.

Today, I talked to a brother in Christ who has been diagnosed with cancer. I so love this brother, and his wife is like a big sister for me, and that thorn really stuck deep. My “fix-it” personality wants to have all the answers yesterday, so that neither of these 2 friends will have to endure the pain of this dreaded disease. But I’m not a doctor or scientist who can fix this, so I turned to the biggest rose on my branch of thorns: Our Creator and Father, and the ability to bring Him our thorns in prayer. I prayed before we ever hung up the phone, and I felt God’s Presence with all of us as we called out to Him with this heavy need.

Now, it’s almost bedtime, and my heart is still reaching out to The God of Healing and Comfort. I seek His peace and strength for my friends, and for myself and my husband. We’ve been through it ourselves when my husband got his diagnosis, and I’m thankful for the dialysis that is now keeping him alive while we wait to see if God has other miracles planned for us. We got a big one when the growth beyond the kidney that showed up on imaging was no longer there when the doctor went in for surgery. When he removed the kidney, all the cancer went with it, and he was shocked. He told me he looked and looked but could find no more cancer. I was so overwhelmed just knowing my husband survived that I didn’t even realize the answer to prayer and to the doctor’s statement before surgery that he’d like to see a miracle. But I know now. I know I serve a God who can and will do miracles, and I’m still looking for more of them to show up on my thorn bush. I welcome prayers from readers as well.

February 6, 2026 Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Christianity, Nonfiction, Prayer, Slice of Life, Thoughts and Articles, Walking With The Lord | cancer, friends, God, healing, life, miracles, pain, prayer, roses, sickness | Leave a comment