Prickers

April 10, 2023

This afternoon, I fought Adam. Along the creek bank in our back yard lies a line of old concrete barriers that were placed there years ago after a flash flood took out most of our back yard. Gravel was hauled in, our back yard was reconstructed, but with these huge concrete break walls along the creek. We mow up to them, but beyond is a briar patch that would make Brer’ Rabbit proud. Last week, Linda had hired one of our teenagers to help her cut them down, but there were still plenty they hadn’t managed to eradicate. I decided to take up the challenge.

Linda came out to help, and together we made headway, but it came at a cost. Even wearing gloves, the thorns, or “prickers,” as Linda calls them, were able to snag my shirt, embed themselves in my hands, and tear at my arms. Adam’s curse is very real.

“Then to Adam [God] said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of 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 3:17-18 

Adam and I had a bit of a falling out, and though I managed to cut down some of the prickers, Adam was able to draw his blood. It made me wonder about the crucifixion. Was the crown of thorns more than just the mockery of bored Roman soldiers? Is it possible that those thorns that drew blood on Jesus’ brow were God’s way of saying Adam’s curse has struck its worst blow, but in three days, that curse will be broken? 

We know that Jesus took upon himself the curse we deserved, and today as Adam and I battled it out, I remembered, and know that though scratched and bleeding, I won in the battlefield of my backyard, and will win in the battlefield of life because Jesus wore the thorns in my place.