Barber

He Counts Every Hair

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Matthew 10:30 KJV

Some people have fond memories of their dads taking them hunting or fishing and while these are great personal stories, my special times with my dad instead revolved around him cutting my hair. To you that might seem strange, but when you come from a line of barbers and hairdressers, it is just normal family stuff. What stands out most in my memory is how Dad held little snippets of my hair between his fingers and one by one meticulously trimmed them and then finished off by shaving the edges with his straight razor.

This is my grandfather’s actual barber set circa 1915

At the time, this all seemed pretty ordinary to me, but as I reflect back I realize this was my dad’s way of showing he loved me. In today’s verse Jesus teaches us that God expresses His love, the way my father did, not by tears, or some sort of emotional display, but by painstakingly examining and counting our hairs. Numbering our hairs, is a lot different than saying, God knows everything so he knows how many are on our head. God has actually taken the time to count every hair on every head throughout the whole world. It is His way of saying that He knows about us because He has counted the details of our lives one by one and then He gave His life in every detail for us when the hairs of His head were crowned with thorns for every one of us.

Heaven’s Beauty Shop

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Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 ESV

When my grandfather came from Italy, he became a barber and most of his six children also ended up cutting hair for a living. Of course, dad helped in the shop while he was growing up, but after coming home from the war, he decided that coiffing lady’s hair paid way better than barbering, so he got his license as a hairdresser.

By the time I was a teen-ager Dad had his own shop and he closed on Mondays to clean the store. Some of our best talks revolved around our times sweeping the floor together and cleaning out the hair driers.  Dad always loved telling funny things about the business and one of his favorites was that even though he charged to wash their hair, the ladies always made sure to wash it before they came to the shop. They just could not bear the thought of dad finding hair that wasn’t already squeaky clean!

Now you might think that pretty ridiculous, but don’t we sometimes do the same thing with God? He invites us to come to church (Heaven’s beauty shop) with our dirty hair and all. But instead, we decide that we need to get cleaned up at home first, or if we do show up, we just worship halfheartedly because we feel unworthy to really participate.

But the craziest part of all is that, unlike dad’s clientele, we do not even have to pay the bill. Instead, God has chosen to pay in advance at Calvary, for everything that we need. He is not angry when we show up with needs and problems, instead He is delighted to take up our burden of sin and in exchange give us His yoke of grace. Then He gently lifts away the condemnation of guilt and in exchange leaves us a burden of His love that we have the privilege to carry all the way home!