Mom’s Crown Reminder

A Reminder About Our Mother’s Faith

My brother Claude has been sharing some pictures of things in his home with me. There are fun items like the Simpson’s collection our father collected over time. I recall the delight Dad had in his collection. I guess it is similar to my marble collection, except that my collection takes up less space.

Another set of pictures brought back memories of something that was hanging in our New Berlin, Wisconsin home. I did not recall the details of the story, but our mother wrote the story down. It is about a crown. The images my brother sent me are included. They are meant to trigger more than just memories of mom or home. They tell a bigger, more powerful story about a king.

Jesus is the King of kings. In other words, there is no higher name or authority. But Jesus wore a first crown that made it look like he wasn’t who he said he was. The first was a crown of thorns; a crown of rejection and humiliation. It was created to create pain and to show disrespect. The second is one that will be worn to show Jesus is worthy of glory and honor.

Grandma’s True Story of Her Crown of Thorns

May 9, 2006

One day when we were at a Bible conference at Winona Lake, Indiana, I was walking in the downtown area. In a store window of a Jewish Outreach organization I spotted a crown of thorns.

It was a very attractive display with a purple backdrop. The more I thought of it, the more I wanted one too. It wasn’t until years later about 2005 did they have them for sale in Christian bookstores.

When I went home, I began to pray for thorns, so that I could make my own. One of my Christian friends learned of my unusual prayer request.

In the providence of God, one summer day, she was visiting one of her brothers, who owned a large farm, and he took her and others on a ride to enjoy the scenery. He pulled a wagon with a tractor, and they enjoyed the beautiful landscape. All of a sudden, my friend Edith (Edith Heinke), let out a loud shout “Thorns!” After explaining to her brother what I had been praying about, he got down from the tractor and cut off several branches for her.

When she returned home, she called me and said, “I have an answer to one of your prayers.” But she would not tell me which one. So I dropped everything, and drove over to her house, a few miles away.

When I arrived, she handed me this long floral box, the kind that long stemmed roses come in. I said, “I’ve not been praying for roses.”

She insisted that I open the box, and there were my thorns! Of course I thanked her, and immediately went home, and took them into the basement, filled the laundry tub with warm water, and let them soak for a day or two. After they became bendable, I cut a coat hanger, and made it into a circle. I found some brown colored wire in grandpa’s workshop and carefully began to wrap the thorns around the wire, using the brown colored wire to hold them in place.

I had the crown of thorns hanging in my home ever since. One time a teenager visiting our home noticed it, and commented about it. One day it even made it to church for part of an Easter display.

Who can tell how God will be pleased to use a little wire, coat hanger, and the answer to my prayers.

I thankfully gave them to my dear son Claude, when I learned he wanted it, and who can tell how God will be pleased to use it in the future. It may make some think about the ONE WHO wore one years ago, and one day we will see the One Who wears a golden crown.

Jesus Was Smitten and Afflicted By God

When he wore the first crown, Jesus was rejected. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” – Isaiah 53:3-4

Soldiers Made the Crown to Humiliate Him

“Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, ‘See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.’ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Behold the man!’ When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, ‘Crucify him, crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.’ The Jews answered him, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.’” – John 19:1-7

Is He the King?

“Then Pilate said to him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’” – John 18:37

He Wore the First Crown For Our Salvation

“For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, ‘What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.’

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.” – Hebrews 2:5-10

Everyone Will Bow Willingly or Unwillingly

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:1-11

All scripture passages are from the English Standard Version except as otherwise noted.