Come Back When You're Clean

I've had lots of haircuts in my life, but I'll never forget one I got when I was in 4th grade.

I was sitting in the chair as the stylist snipped away. Then she suddenly stopped, and after a long pause she said, "Sick!"

I looked up into the mirror to see a look of horror and disgust on the stylist's face.

She then turned and called loudly to my dad sitting over in the waiting area, "You need to get here out of here. She has lice."

So after she yanked the apron off me, I was forced to do a walk of shame from the chair to my dad while people looked at me nervously. After all, everyone in the place had heard. It was a nightmare for an already-starting-to-feel-self-conscious 8-year old.

I felt humiliated and unclean.

Can you imagine how the lepers in Jesus' time must have felt, being constantly and publicly declared "unclean"? If my hair salon experience was even a glimpse into it, then I cannot imagine a lifetime of such public rejection and disdain.

Since I was mid-haircut when the kind lady with the scissors discovered the lice, we had to go to the store to buy a headlice kit, go home, do the treatment, and THEN return that same day to have the other half of my hair cut.

I understood one thing that day--I was not to return until I was clean.

I'm so grateful that our God speaks the exact opposite over us. We're not commanded to clean up our acts before we run to Him. In Christ we're welcomed when we're unclean, even rescued from the dirty depths and pulled from the miry pits. We are received in our filthiest state...and are deeply loved.

But God demonstrates His love for us in this:

While we were STILL SINNERS, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8