There Are Thorns

This screen capture is from an article I read Christmas Eve. Perrysburg, Ohio, is where my mother-in-law was born.  My husband was born just a bit down the river in Maumee. We have family there, and near there, now.  It was in Toledo where my dear sister-in-law lost her battle with a failing heart.  Lives are filled with painful thorns.

Paul wrote of his own thorn, though he never described what it was:

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. (2 Corinthians 12:7-9 KJV)

Matt Hammett’s feelings are understood by all of us:

They also didn't know how to deal with a flood of emotions — the anger, the doubt, the feeling of being alone.

Instead of keeping those feelings within himself, he shared them in music:

The songs were meant to comfort his family while they searched for answers and sought to understand God's role during the months before and after the baby's birth that were filled with surgeries and life-threatening complications.

You see, we don’t understand God’s role when things go terribly wrong. But, we do know that denying Him, or pushing Him away is not constructive. For me, Matt Hammett’s putting his cries to God into music follows the excellent example of David.

I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. (Psalms 69:2-3 KJV)

As Christians, when we are overflown by sorrow, we know what effect that may have on people around us:

Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. (Psalms 69:6 KJV)

Yet we have to deal with our own sorrows, our own losses, our own lack of understanding when we are weary of crying.

The song from "Every Falling Tear" that means the most to Hammitt is "Trust," a worship song that reminds people not to lose faith "even in the darkness, even in the questions, even when the hardest times of life are at hand."

That’s faithfulness. To place all of the pain, sorrow, doubt into God’s will, and know that:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 KJV)

Even when the thorns of life prick us and we bleed.