I grew up picking all kinds of fruit in Michigan. There were farms close by that we could pay to pick. In the summer, we picked strawberries, cherries, and blueberries. In the Fall, we picked apples. Now that I live in Tennessee, I still pick blueberries and strawberries, but now I’ve added raspberries that I grow and blackberries that grow along the roadside. The fruit I picked in my youth did not have thorns. The raspberries and blackberries that I now pick do. When I collect berries, I am very careful to work around the thorns because it hurts when a thorn gets in my skin.
Have you ever seen trees with thorns? One of the largest thorned trees in Tennessee is the Honey Locust. It has thorns sticking out of its trunk and its branches. Not only are these thorns long, but they are also branched. These thorns are called compound thorns. Thorns on trees deter large animals from eating the bark or leaves. They also deter animals with antlers from rubbing against the tree. If broken thorns fall to the ground, they can hurt feet or even puncture car tires.
Every time I see the impressive thorns of the honey locust, I think about the crown of thorns that was placed on Jesus’ head at the time of crucifixion. Although the thorns were not harvested from the honey locust, thorns from another tree or shrub were used to inflict pain. Sometimes I carefully touch the thorns to remember the price paid for me.
When sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, it changed the Earth. In Genesis 3, God told Adam and Eve that the ground would produce thorns and thistles because of sin. This would make it difficult and even painful for them to grow food.
Genesis 3:17b-18: “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.”
When Jesus came to Earth, he walked among the people, plants, and animals that he created “In the beginning.” The same thorns that entered the world through sin would be used to harm the Savior of the World. Jesus’ death paid the penalty for Adam and Eve’s wrongs, and all of ours. Thorns remind us of the precious price paid so we may live.
