Thursday, January 3, 2008

Strain A Gnat And Swallow A Camel

I went to get a haircut today at my favorite hair cuttin' haunt. When I arrived at my appointed time, Crystal, was busily cutting a young lady's hair. A few moments later, in walked another young lady (#2) and someone who appeared to be her mother. After Young Lady #1's haircut she indicated that she would like an eyebrow wax. I quickly surmised that the young ladies were sisters and further figured out that my haircut was going to take much longer than I had first anticipated.

When the waxing started I was immediately interested as I had never seen anyone perform this procedure except for Paige, and she did it on herself. Crystal sat Young Lady #1 down at the hair washing sink and rocked her back for ease of access to the eyebrows. At this, mother and Young Lady #2 gathered around for moral support. Crystal smeared on the wax, applied the material and --Rip!-- off came the extraneous eyebrow hair. Young Lady #1 was a real trooper! There were no screams of pain nor tears shed throughout four applications on various places on and around her face. After witnessing such raw courage, Young Lady #2 apparently got up enough gumption and requested to also have her eyebrow's waxed. Crystal cast a glance my way as if to see if I was alright and I nodded back that I was okay on time. I was getting into this now.

Young Lady #2 was obviously the younger sister. She wore her bleach blond hair in a crop cut- had dark mascara, baggy black cargo pants replete with zippers, chains and dangling suspenders. She had on a pair of black Converse All-Stars and the whole ensemble was accentuated with a Marilyn Manson t-shirt. As she swapped places with Young Lady #1, #2 was visibly uneasy about the prospects of pain she was on the verge of experiencing. That is when the irony of the whole scenario dawned on me.

You see, there were a couple of additional adornments I failed to mention with regard to Young Lady #2's chosen couture. She had a nose piercing and a lip piercing with large studs protruding from each one. Now you understand why it was difficult for me to keep my head buried in my year-old salon magazine while trying to stifle my laughter. Nothing against her style- to each his own- but how could she let someone stab her face, twice, and then wince in great pain and agony as a stylist waxes her eyebrows?

It reminded me of the passages in Matthew 23 in which Jesus is raking the teachers of the law and the Pharisees (representatives of the religious establishment in that day) over the coals. He wonders aloud how they could "strain out a gnat but swallow a camel." The point that Jesus was making was that the religious leaders would nit pick and hold feet to the fire on minor points of the law, and, yet, be totally oblivious to major points- things like, I don't know, maybe L-O-V-E!
I have done that so many times in my life. Have you? As a teenager, I remember deciding to stop swearing and using bad language- only to go days without praying, as well. Maybe we would all do well to not sweat the small stuff while neglecting God's larger precepts.

P.S.- I did NOT go for the eyebrow wax following my haircut.

1 comment:

  1. and you didn't ONLY because you're CHICKEN!!!!

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