Hair

We are sensitive about our hair.  How many hours does one spend on his or her hair during any given month?  It's obviously one part of physical appearance people see when they look at us, but what's the big deal?  I have to ask myself this impossible question.

When I was an impressionable teenager, a trusted adult barked at me, "Your hair looks terrible, like you haven't brushed it in a month!"  Damage was clearly caused, proven by the fact that I'm writing about it 23 years later.  Once, in my days of pharmaceutical sales, I complimented a nurse on her lovely new 'do, only to realize she was battling cancer and donning a wig.  Talk about foot in mouth disease!  

Recently I had my hair pulled back, and someone close to me noticed aloud "all that gray!"  For the record, I am rather pleased to have gray to prove my wisdom (insert laughter here).  Seriously, why are we ladies afraid of going gray?  Does it mean we're getting older?  Well, we ARE, with each fleeting moment!  God created our bodies to age naturally, and we (myself included) do many things to squelch this beautiful process.  The truth is, my almost forty (!) raven head should be showing signs of aging, or else I would be worried.  

Kay DeKalb Smith, one of my favorite funny ladies, sings about hair hangups  here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kay+dekalb+smith+hair. Another of my best-loved ladies, the late Barbara Johnson, says:

"A friend who is bald says he will never wear a turtleneck sweater.  He's afraid he'll look like a roll-on deodorant!  This is the same friend who said he used to use Head & Shoulders.  Now he needs Mop & Glow!"*

We all struggle with our hair: men, women, gray, balding, too straight, too thin...no one is exempt.  Jesus tell us, "...the very hairs of your head are numbered," as he goes on to remind those He loves of our worth to Him (Matthew 10:30-31).  David's account of our beauty to God is laid out in Psalm 139.  He says to God, "You formed my inward parts...I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made."  When I my gray hair was called out that particular day, I was ready with an answer: "Gray hair is a crown of splendor," (Proverbs 16:31); the NKJV says, "The silver-haired head is a crown of glory."

To quote one Hollywood notable, "Gray hair is God's graffiti." 

Love the hair that God has bestowed on your precious head.  Praise Him for it.  Whether you have thousands or few, the Lord of the universe knows, and He loves you.  He knows your circumstances and self-consciousness.  We grow closer to Him when we lay everything at His feet, even our hair.  We allow Him in and invite intimacy as we talk over the little things with Him, either praising Him for them, or confessing that they are a burden.  I'm starting to recognize His glory in the uniqueness of every head, every special one that He loves.

*From Daily Splashes of Joy, Barbara Johnson, 2000.