Have you ever had a bad haircut? One so bad, you wanted to wear a hat? In first grade, everyone laughed when someone got a haircut. It could be the tiniest, most imperceptible trim, but the class would point and laugh, chanting in their sing-song way: “Brian got a hair-cut! Brian got a hair-cut!” That continued till we were teenagers.
Yet, a truly bad haircut remains embarrassing, I don’t care how old you are. But I wonder what it was like for Samson. He had never had a haircut. His hair had always been longer and heavier than everyone else’s. He kept it braided and bound behind him, but it was always there like another limb. (In fact, researchers say long hair actually has a use, providing a sixth sense about danger—every long hair is an antenna picking up vibrations and transmitting them to the nerves near the roots. American Indians joining the US military have wept when losing a full head of hair, aware they had lost the “radar” they had relied on all their lives like an extra set of ears.)
Samson lost even more. He lost his “antenna” for danger, his super-human strength, and his vision (because the Philistines took a grapefruit spoon to his eye balls). He had led Israel for twenty years. Now he was a slave, turning a miller’s wheel like a mule.
“But his hair began to grow back after it had been shaved” Judges 16:22.
When you read that line in context, the whole story changes. There’s hope! God is not finished with Samson!
No matter what you have done, no matter how you fail—your hair will grow back. God’s grace will return. Be faithful, follow God, and He will bless you again! Don’t give up!
God, thank you for your grace! Restore us and use us like Samson to do more than we have ever done before!
ΑΩ
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