Prickles of Life

Here on the island the grass is very different than at home. Most of it is tough and sort of weedy. There is something which grows in the grass here that produces seeds that are sharp and stick to you, what I would call a "burr”. I asked what they would be called on the island and Miss Pauline told me they are “prickles.”

They stick to your shoes, the hem of your jeans. Before I wash the laundry I find myself checking for prickles because they will transfer from the jeans to the towels and sheets. I have found it is not fun to find a prickle in your bed at night.

Sugar (our dog) gets the prickles in her fur and we need to check her for the things before they get matted and close to her skin. She gets them in the pads of her paws too.

So prickles are just something we are going to have to live with. They are here. They have been here and people on the island have been living with them for years. At home we would spray something or groom the yard to get rid of the prickles. Here, prickles are just accepted and maybe almost anticipated.

We each have our own prickles. The things that bother us. The things of life that get under our skin and rub us the wrong way. These may be things we face every day. Prickles are things we just can’t change right now. We can anticipate that they are to come. We can understand they will come.

What does God have for us in the “prickles of life” ?

It reminds me of verses from James 1:

² When troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. ³ For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. ⁴ So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

⁵ If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. ⁶ But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸ Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

⁹ Believers who are poor have something to boast about, for God has honored them. ¹⁰ And those who are rich should boast that God has humbled them. They will fade away like a little flower in the field.¹¹ The hot sun rises and the grass withers; the little flower droops and falls, and its beauty fades away. In the same way, the rich will fade away with all of their achievements.

¹² God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.