The Haircut

When my husband was sixteen years old, he worked for the YCC.
The Youth Conservation Corps.
He was away for the entire summer after our sophomore year of high school.
He worked in the Gettysburg National Park.
He rebuilt the post and rail fences, painted barns, restored the peach tree orchard.
I like the fact that when people walk around the battlefield today, they are seeing things that were rebuilt, painted, and restored by my husband, and others, all those years ago.

We wrote a few letters to each other that summer.
We were not dating…just good friends.
While he was away, his oldest sister delivered her first child…the first grandchild.
He came home one weekend to meet his new niece.

He wrote and asked if he could see me while he was home.
I wrote back that I had a surprise for him…a new haircut.

Let me explain…
My haircut was done by a woman in my neighborhood who had a small salon in her home.
I decided not only to get my haircut, but to get a perm as well.
I looked very different…not at all like myself.
And the perm had the distinct aroma of rotten eggs!

I hoped, that in the week until I saw him, my hair would smell more like my shampoo and less like picnic food that was kept in the sun too long!
I also hoped that the curl would be less curly.

I was almost sixteen years old, when I decided to try this new look.
My mother had died only a few months before, so I asked my aunt for her opinion.
She was not thrilled with the idea and tried to talk me out of it.
But I went ahead and did it anyway with babysitting money I had received.

I saw the familiar car pull up.
I was nervous.
He got out of the car…and then I saw…the LOOK!
I knew…right then…I should have listened to my aunt and left my hair alone.

He was polite.
We talked and caught up.
I heard about his new niece.
And then he went home.

Summer ended…school began.
We saw each other in class.
He didn’t go out of his way to talk to me.
I was not about to be the pursuer!

There was a certain hair style that was popular back then.
It was long…layered on the sides…feathered back.
I decided to grow my hair just like that!

As winter approached, I began to look more like me!
Funny how a certain young man started to notice me a bit more!
Junior prom came in the spring.
We went together.
We went to the senior prom as well.
We dated all through college…long distance…me in Pennsylvania…he in Atlanta.
We were married right after we both graduated from college.

I kept my hair the usual way until our third child was born.
I was ready for a change and cut my hair shorter again.
My husband liked it…but our oldest daughter said it didn’t look like me.

She was in first grade at the time and was star of the week, when I got my new look.
One of the privileges of being star of the week was that your Mom or Dad could come in and read your favorite book to the class.
You got to sit on the floor…right in front…as they read.

When I got to her classroom, my daughter sat in the back…not next to me.
I pulled the teacher aside to inform her that I had just gotten my hair cut.
To my six year old daughter…I was not “Mom”.
She understood perfectly.

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
(1 Peter 3:3,4)

Whether sixteen or six…we all want the people we love and care about to stay the same.
We don’t want them to change.
But that is unrealistic.

Think of a flowing river…water constantly moving…cool, clear, refreshing.
Think of a stagnant pool of water…mosquitoes, debris, algae.

Change happens to all of us…and to those we love.
Sometimes, change happens that we don’t want.
Unwelcome change can be difficult.

But even in those difficult times of change, we have a promise.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)

Our Lord Jesus is unchanging.
Through the ebb and flow of life, through the stillness and the tumult…He is the same.
When there are no guarantees…there is always HIM!
The same yesterday and today and forever.

How comforting.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)