The Bible from the barber’s chair. Sitting in the barber’s chair ministered to by a barber. Is there a parable here? Have you ever considered your hair stylist holy?
It certainly had never occurred to me. But it did this past week after my last visit when my stylist and I got into a discussion about reading the Bible. It started with a discussion about dogs misbehaving.
The Bible rooted in everyday things
We often forget of the rootedness of the Bible. Consider this from Isaiah 10:28.
He [God] has gone up from Samaria;
he has come to Aiath;
he has passed through Migron;
at Michmash he stores his
baggage;
God taking baggage on a trip? Why? Because, I think, that by giving us that detail, we can place ourselves with God on a long journey. Not unlike a journey we might take. God, and all the ways to address that which is beyond our understanding, is of this world. Our world of ordinary things, including getting our hair cut and lamenting misbehaving dogs.
Also and maybe even more important, not only does this detail place God in our world but it also places our ordinary lives in God’s world of the preciousness of life. An ordinary hair cut can take on something more.
Coming to the barber’s chair
When I sit down in that barber’s chair, I’m filled with hope. Hope that the stylist will change me from ordinary to stunning. That somehow my nose will look smaller, my hair thicker. Then she is done with her magic and I do feel better and look my best with amazing hair, but stunning? Nope. If I’m honest, when she hands me the mirror, I see something short of what I hoped for when I sat down. Is this not similar to what we expect from life?
And the stylist? They know from the start that the person heading for their chair is ordinary. Nothing is perfect about this person. But that doesn’t stop them from offering you their chair and getting to work with the reality before them. Finding the best in what they are given to work with and ending by placing a mirror into the hands of the person to check back in with reality. “See for yourself what wonder happened here!” Is this not what we really, deep down hope for?
And that is not all the barber does. They listen. For that time they have you in their chair, they are all yours. Is this not a holy person? Is this not a parable of our lives of hope and love and reality?
The Bible from the barber’s chair
Did you know before reading this that the Bible has God storing baggage? If you did, would it mean anything to you but how odd. How irreverent. How naive.
You may have only heard of the laws, judgements and sins of the Bible. But this is not the Bible from the barber’s chair.
That Bible places us in the real world, with real people, none perfect in their loving. Less than perfect writing about less than perfect people. All that beside our desire to catch a glimmer of what is beyond us.
It is not woo-woo stuff. It is hard work in reality stuff. What better way for Isaiah to remind us that what God does is what we do, what we do is what God does, than to have God lug baggage around? Making the idea come down to earth and our messy, very real lives. I’ll never look at my luggage the same way again. Or my stylist.
Have a wonderful holiday season that makes space for all of life.
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