Our picture today with its lovely apple blossoms reminds me of a schoolyard where beautiful wild roses bloomed along the fence. Some of the school children had pinned a few in their hair and then ran to show the teacher what they had done.
The teacher smiled, but Dorothy held up a bleeding finger. “Why do roses have thorns?” she asked.
“Thorns and sin go together,” said lie teacher. “There were no thorns in the garden of Eden until Adam sinned, and then God cursed the ground for loan’s sake, and sent thorns and thistles upon it.”
Dorothy’s sore finger still hurt, so the teacher added, “Jesus knows about that. He wore a crown of thorns once upon His holy head, and the soldiers smote Him with a reed to make it worse.”
“I wish there weren’t any thorns,” said Joy.
“We deserve them, but Jesus didn’t,” answered the teacher. “He bore the curse of sin when He died on the cross. Then. He went back to heaven where there is no sin and no thorns, and He is waiting now, ready to welcome you to His home. We deserve the curse and the thorns, but if we come to the Saviour who bore it for us, we will be cleansed from all sin which God hates. Don’t you love the Lord Jesus for doing that for you?”
“I love Him,” said Geraldine.
ML 03/25/1951