Compassionate haircut

I think it’s not an uncommon scenario, a young mother dressing up her precious little ones in the new clothes from Grandma for a family photo only to have the 3-year old get ahold of mommy’s lipstick and use it to “paint” his little 1-year old sister.  On the way.  The baby’s face is sufficiently cleaned off, and miraculously (mercifully) none of the red “paint” got on the dress…only to have the other “end” of the situation explode, uncontainably. 

One of my personal favorite recollections is Bob coming into the room where I was napping before going to work nightshift at the hospital one evening.  He enters with this question, “Honey, do you love your middle daughter??”

Great way to wake up.

Robin had decided to give her little sister a haircut.  And I willingly leave the rest up to the reader’s imagination. 

The point is that we have the best of plans for what something should look like.  And something (or someone) else has a different plan, one that, even with the best of intentions, is quite necessarily not the best after all.

I cannot help but see the comparison with our Creator God Who, in the wisdom of His plan, allowed us to morally soil ourselves (since love cannot be coerced) and even allows us to call it good (without entirely wiping us from the planet).  I considered posting a particular video, a poetic enactment of the transformation of a man as he dresses into a woman’s clothing.  This was showcased as Bob and I were watching our “listener-supported public television”.  And this comes to mind:

“For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie… “

Unfortunately, and admittedly, the first reaction for many of us in the Christian boat is repulsion, even fear.  And while I should be sickened by ANYthing not of God, I am not allowed to draw back from any of those “created in His image”.  Jesus, in fact, pursues them, just as He pursued me. 

And you.

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,Christ died for us.”

Suffice it to say that the grief I felt for this young man in no way compares to the intense heartache of his Creator, a heartache borne of love and loss.  Only God knows this person’s pain, as only He knew ours, and everyone of Adam’s descendants.  And only the Creator, motivated by the same love, could remove the darkness of soul, the fog of emotions and confusion, and return us to His intended glory and position. 

“Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.”

And it took more than trimming up a little girl’s creative haircut. 

Romans 1:25; 5:8; Psalm 51:6  New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation