Why Thorns?

I walked in the garden early one morn. 

I reached for a rose and picked only a thorn.
Red drops of blood from my finger began to fall.
The pain from the thorn was severe I recall.

I looked at all the beauty of the rose still attached to the bush.
My hand could have held it if I hadn't been in such a rush.
I looked only at its beauty and tried to get there by the quickest path.
The thorn that was hidden from my vision lashed out in all its wrath.

I wonder why God would add thorns to the beauty of the rose.
I guess He surely had a good reason I suppose.
If life only had beauty without any ugliness or pain,
What then would we reach for, what would there be for us to attain?

In this life day to day, I have found this to be true,
You have to be pricked a few times, yes you do.
When the pain stops, when the bleeding finally subsides,
You will so much more appreciate the beauty before your eyes.