Thorn & Thistle

The Gardners Crown

Mercy, the kind that saves us,

grows in the most unlikely ground.

It blooms among thorns.

It takes root in the soil of struggle and suffering.

From the beginning, the earth bore the marks of our rebellion.

Genesis says the ground was cursed, “thorns and thistles it shall bring forth.”

The first garden became the first grave.

The soil itself carried the ache of separation.

And yet, when redemption came,

Jesus entered that same story

and wore the curse upon His head.

A crown of thorns pressed into holy flesh.

What once symbolized our fall

became the very means by which we are healed.

He took the curse and wore it as a crown.

He turned pain into redemption.

And when He rose, He didn’t hide His wounds…

He showed them.

Those scars were not marks of shame,

but proof of resurrection.He stood before His disciples and said, “See my hands.”

And maybe, just maybe, that’s what healing really is.

Not forgetting what’s been wounded,

but allowing Him to redeem it.

Not covering our scars,

but letting them tell our testimony.

Whether our stories are filled with thorns and wounds we have caused,

or ones that were pressed upon us, the cross covers both.

Our hurtful choices and the pain of choice lost,

our rebellion and our ruin.

The real question is not which did He bear for me:

Sin or sorrow?

The truthful answer is yes.

Both.

Jesus bore it all.

The guilt that stains us

and the grief that still aches within us.

And He wore them both as a crown of thorns.

What once marked our fall

now tells the story of His mercy.

So can we ask ourselves, gently but honestly:

Are we tending a grave or a garden?

Thorn & Thistle Prayer

Lord,

Let every thorn lead us to prayer, and every pain a petition to you.

Teach us to trust you in the rough soil of our stories.

Where pain once ruled, plant peace instead.

Turn our graves into gardens, curses into crowns, sorrow into song.

Would you heal our wounds and deploy our scars?

Amen.

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