Last week as I was getting ready to go to the dentist, my daughter came into my room exclaiming, “Mama, we have a problem.” Taking one look at her, I busted out laughing. She had a round hairbrush stuck in her hair. Once I quit laughing I begin trying to untangle the knotted mess. The more I worked, the more she screamed and the tears began to flow. It didn’t take long for my laughing to stop – I too wanted to cry because I couldn’t get the blasted hairbrush out of her hair.
After what seemed like an eternity, I did the only thing I could do. We piled in the car and drove to the beauty salon. Embarrassed, Jorjanne put on a hoodie to try and hide the brush. The funny thing was that the handle stuck out of the front of her hood making her look like she had a big black growth on the front of her head. It reminded me of a Masaii warrior. Once we got to the salon, I learned that the trick to getting out such a tangled mob was conditioner – lots and lots of conditioner. After about ten minutes, the hairbrush was finally back where it belonged, in my daughter’s hand.
The more I thought about this hairbrush dilemma, I kept thinking of the verse in Hebrews 12:1 that says “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us…” Her hairbrush was a great picture of what sin does to us. We think we can dance around with sin just for a little while. We can quit anytime, right? Before we know it, we are trapped by the sin and can’t get free. It takes something outside of ourselves to free us. The conditioner in this case is the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jorjanne learned a valuable lesson that day. She will never twist a round brush around and around in her hair again, not even for a little while. May we learn the same lesson and not “dance” with sin, not even a little.
Thankful for: the thunderous roar that warns of the impending storm, indoor plumbing and glorious laughter with squeals of delight
