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When You Get to the End of Yourself
by W. T. Purkiser
Chapter 10

Thankful for the Thorns

II

That God is concerned with our suffering is beyond debate.  He has proved it by sending His only begotten Son, who "hath borne our grief’s, and carried our sorrows," who was "wounded for our transgressions" and was "bruised for our iniquities," and by whose "stripes we are healed." 

God does not die when the clouds hide the sun.  In all of life we must "trust God where we cannot trace Him." 

There is wisdom in the words of Fenelon:  "If there is anything that can render the soul calm, dissipate it's scruples and dispel it's fears, sweeten it's sufferings by the anointing of love, impart to it in all it's actions, and spread the joy of the Holy Spirit in it's countenance and words, it is this sweet simple and childlike repose in the arms of God."

God helps us to do what we can, and endure what we must, even in the darkest hours.  But more, He wants to teach us that there are no rainbows without storm clouds and there are no diamonds without heavy pressure and enormous heat.

It is no accident that the gates of the Heavenly city of God are made from pearls.  You know how pearls come to be.  A grain of sand or some foreign substance lodges in the tender, living flesh of a little shell fish.  Quietly and unnoticed, the life processes bring healing and coat the source of the irritation with a smooth and beautiful substance that becomes a pearl, one of natures loveliest gems.  And the gates of Heaven are made of pearls.