Thistles and Citations
Good grief! As if I didn’t work hard enough to keep my yard looking –well—at least halfway decent. I confess I can’t always keep up with the weeds. I really do try, but those weeds are tenacious. Not only tenacious, but I swear they grow at three times the rate regular flowers grow. Why is that?
Of all things, I recently got a citation from the County to clean up my weeds or they were going to come and do it for me and then charge me. Who says they can do that? The area they are talking about is, admittedly, a natural (ie WILD) area. That means NOT CULTIVATED. It looks the same every year. I wonder why they chose now to cite it and not all the years since I’ve been here?
I have cut down all the thistles that I found. Thistles are sticky. They do have a rather pretty purple flower, but then it turns into a whole lot of little thistles. So, I tried to get them before they got me. This little guy is still in my garden, but he won’t be for very much longer. I imagine that thistles are sticking (!) their tongues out at me as they sneak up through my flowers. Grrr.
Cursed Ground
Recently, reading in Genesis in the Bible, I came across the verse where God said that because of our sin, the ground would be cursed. It would bring forth thistles and thorns. It goes without saying that we wrestle with these noxious weeds continually. The evidence abounds.
Thorns and Redemption
But, wait! The other part of “thistles and thorns” is—thorns. Other Scriptures tell us how soldiers “twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head.” Those thorns were far stickier than the thistles that grow around my home. I am told that thorn bushes in the Middle East produce thorns some inches long. They are sharp as nails. The thorns were “twisted.” In order for the blood to flow, the soldiers did more than just “put” that crown of sharp, twisted, ugly thorns on the head of Jesus.
A representative of sinful man, originally made in the image of God, created a crown of thorns out of the cursed ground, and shoved it on the head of our Savior. Jesus, the true King of Kings, Creator of the Universe, wore it as He bore our sin, our curse, and brought redemption to us.
Amazing how God’s Word is lived out in our everyday lives, even when we don’t realize it!
“Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the herb of the field,” Genesis 3:17b-18.
“And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head,” John 19:2a.
Strange citation. How marvelous that an annoying civic riddle launched further study of the scriptures, now shared so meaningfully with us. Thank you!
Surely. The citation was definitely annoying. It seems God takes everything to teach us something about Himself or us, doesn’t it?
It is a good thing that I don’t live in the city, since I have a plethora of thriving weeds and no time to do anything about it.
Yep, that’s exactly why I have a plethora of thriving weeds, too. I’m hoping to carve out an hour or two after work this week to work on my front flower garden. The roses and lilies are beautiful, but surrounded by miscreants from the plant world. Ugh.