"There was GIVEN to me a thorn in the flesh" (2 Cor. 12:7).

The flesh is the flesh, in Paul as in other men, and the third heaven experience doesn't cure it. The thorn in the flesh is given to keep pride out of the heart. It didn't just happen, it was GIVEN. It was necessary to keep Paul down. After the lesson is learned the thorn may be removed, but if not, there is all-sufficient grace that will help the recipient to take pleasure in it.

—H.K.D.

Strange gift indeed—a thorn to prick
To pierce into the very quick:
To cause perpetual sense of pain:
Strange gift, and yet 'twas given for gain.

Unwelcome—yet it came to stay:
Nor could it e'en be prayed away.
It came to fill its God-planned place—
A life-enriching means of grace.