Invited to a friends house last night, my husband and I were served cactus salad; a simple Mexican dish that we had never tried before. For years I have noticed cacti in grocery stores, and while normally adventurous in my eating, have never had the desire to taste the prickly plant.
The dish had a sweet flavor with a soft texture, resembling slightly cooked squash. One would never guess that under the tough skin and prickly thorns of a cactus was such a soft, succulent inner flesh.
It made me think of some prickly women I know: those that rub me the wrong way. There is one particular friend I am thinking of right now. She is harsh at times, critical and often brash in her statements. This turns others away and gives her the reputation of being negative and a trouble maker.
Yet, I have had the privilege of participating in a bible study now with this women and have learned that inside this prickly shell is a lonely, hurt and hurting woman. She is a single mom, struggling to raise her two boys with no help from their father nor any other family member. Her own family rejected her when she left Catholicism for Christianity and life is difficult and lonely. Her adolescent sons are rebelling for the first time and she has no one to turn to but her bible study friends..
I have been challenged to dig under the thorns and tough skin to view a soft flesh that resembles other women I love. One might get hurt or turned off by her prickly nature but this is a woman who loves the Lord and is doing her best to raise her boys in a godly manner, seeking to protect them from worldly influences while struggling to provide for their daily needs.
This morning I received a text that her mother agreed to attend church with her for the first time. This is an enormous event in her life and I can rejoice with her as I see one thorn broken off, with many more to follow.
I have grown to love this woman and wish I had looked beneath the surface sooner to see her heart. If God can look beyond the thorns to see the heart, then so should his people.
I thank God for those in my life who have been willing to look past my negativity and prickly nature to see a heart that loves God; for those who do not judge me for who I am, but who love me for the woman I am striving to be.