Sacrifice

S

acrifice . . .

I walked into the haircut shoppe and the receptionist quietly told me that someone would be with me in 15 minutes.  I grabbed a magazine but never opened it.  I began to witness a very intimate family time.  A woman in her mid-50’s had just gotten her hair cut short – very short.  It was like a spike haircut all over.  It must have been her husband in the chair now and he was getting his hair shaved off – totally bald.  Another hairdresser took one of the sons, about 16 or 17 years old.  He got his head shaved bald too.   A young girl stood by the mama, and kept patting her back.  She looked about 13. Hushed whisperings went back and forth.  The dad was done and he went over and hugged his wife and his daughter.  Again, quiet tones and then the young girl said firmly aloud, “but I WANT to“. She got in the chair.  I could see the hair dresser hesitate.  The dad nodded his head, giving her permission to proceed.  And the girl’s beautiful thick long hair was first cut, wrapped in a ribbon and put in a bag.  I realized it was probably given to Locks of Love.  But then, the hair dresser cut the rest of the girls hair, into the same spike style as her mother.  I saw tears streaming down her face . . .  the mama swiveled her chair around several times to not continually watch.  Even the hair dresser had to walk away and grab a tissue. When her hair was cut, she stood up.  The young girls face actually glowed as she went and hugged her parents and brother, but soon they were all weeping together.  The dad said, “we are all in this together” as he pulled his wife in close to him. I knew immediately they were all fighting with the mom.  She probably was going to be going through chemo. I felt like I was invading in on a very private family moment.  I needed tissue too.   What a sacrifice to fight with the mom.  Knowing a friend who is  fighting cancer, I’ve seen the sacrifices, from a son not going away to college and staying home, to the dad taking many days off from work to be with his wife.  They have made a point to take extra vacations to make memories and give her a break from all the medical necessities. The sacrificing was just beginning for this family that left the hair cut shoppe.

It wrenched my heart that night . . . kept thinking of that family, of the mom feeling her almost bald head, looking for hairs on her pillow the next morning.  I imagined the determination of her wanting to see her children grow up, graduate, marry and hold her first grandchild.  There would be many sacrifices for this family for the coming months.

As I think of Jesus watching upon this family and the many others that ache, knowing each tear that falls, every hair that comes loose, and sighs that are not hidden from Him.  He understands rejection, misunderstandings, disownment, and our temptations.  He made the ultimate sacrifice dying for us to give us eternal life so that not one of us would have to know the true depths of hell.  He continually tells us He wants to go through life with us, and that He is in it together with us.  It’s hard to comprehend, except when we think of how we’d lay down our lives for our loved ones . . . we get a glimpse of the ultimate sacrifice He made for us because we matter to Him!

Joining in with the Sacrifice Blog Carnival and Imperfect Prose.