I Cut Hair

Tentatively, through the door, into the, clamor and hubbub stepped the nervous, confused, and somewhat bedraggled young woman. People were scurrying around packing food and water and paper things into boxes which were handed past her to others who gave them to the people in the passing cars.
“May I help?” she heard and turned toward the comfortable voice.
“Uh, I need a scoop.”
So it started. A scoop and a broom don’t really look a lot like “seeds.” Lunch with smiles and hugs, listening ears and faces filled with empathy don’t seem to fit the term “water.” All these topped off with caring hearts, and love left with her - with Lori. She wanted to clean the flood muck out of her barber shop so she could get back to making a living. She will learn there is more to clean out than muck in a barber shop. There is more to life than living.
Teams in various color shirts including orange - all clothed in the brightness of the humble, servant Savior - cleaned the flood muck from her house and the trees from her yard. The dirtier they got, the more they reflected Him. His light shined on her. Tenderness radiating from Him - through them - melted her nervous confusion and hope peeped past the clouds of despair that had darkened her before. A tiny, wondering smile struggled past formerly tight lips. The crushing weight of caring for the son with his wheelchair and life support lifted a bit. Getting the young daughter to and from school became just a little less of a load. Clearing muck doesn’t look much like watering.
Friday morning, a couple of weeks later, three people in orange shirts saw the barber shop freshly painted red, white, and, yes, blue. Hand-painted, giant white letters shouted from a rough plywood board, “Relief and Church workers, THANK YOU.” The door agreed with the sign that proclaimed, “OPEN!” She looked up in surprise from the piles of bright, new barber shop stuff. A big smile. All the dark clouds had dissolved and there was a twinkle in her eyes. She did the hugging this time. “Look! The lights work! Monday we are re-opening.” The scoop was no longer needed.
“How is your house? What about your girl and boy? Is your husband still working seven twelves?”
A half-hour of excited and happy talk later, “Come to the church building and have lunch with us.”
“I have to go look for a new stove and washer and dryer.”
“Come to the building for lunch – a group of God’s children in Colorado sent an eighteen-wheeler loaded with appliances. Maybe some are still available.”
It started with a scoop and a broom, then lunch. She called her Dad to come with his truck and haul home the new appliances. Seeds from Colorado?
Friday after lunch, the orange shirts went to a house where others clad in the glow of the humble Savior had been before. The old woman’s naturally curly hair was damp with sweat as she dragged yet another limb to the pile on the street.
“How are you doing?” started her on a warm and long conversation.
“Just look at all this trash. It all washed here from the church that the storm surge destroyed. I used to go to that church, but now…..”
“Come have an early Thanksgiving dinner with us Sunday at the Long Beach church building. Bring your husband.” Seeds.
“I don’t know, he is getting the barber shop ready for Monday.” A clue?
“Is your daughter’s name Lori?”
All were surprised and happy – Lori’s mom! Her husband had not yet returned from hauling the appliances for Lori.
The three in orange shirts drove toward the next house amazed at how the humble Savior works.
A few blocks west, where teams had worked, the door was open. Rolls of carpet showed that final work was happening in the house. He came to the door – more surprises. The two ladies in orange shirts had worked clearing out his girlfriend’s trailer and he had been there.
“Can you get her a message?”
“Give it to her yourself, she is here now.” Redundant, yes, but, even more surprises.
As the ladies chatted, the two men talked. “When do you start back to work?”
“Monday.” A clue?
“What do you do?”
“I cut hair.”
The digital picture, taken just a few blocks away, of the old woman posed with the man in the orange shirt brought tears and, yes, more surprise. “That’s my Mom!”
“Come eat Thanksgiving dinner with us on Sunday.” Seeds.
Three people in orange shirts, leaning on the hood of the car, looking at the Gulf of Mexico, and surrounded by the devastation of Katrina, didn’t even try to control their emotions. There are times when the humble Savior’s hand is so obvious it is, well, humbling. The orange clad teen-aged girl saw an old man and a wonderful lady cry openly in complete awe at what He had done. He had tied the pieces together for a family - and a family. He said He would be there where two or three are gathered. Three people in orange shirts were sure of His warm presence. The real surprise is that the three of them were surprised by what He had done.
Lori and her son and daughter enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. There, some of her customers welcomed and embraced her and an elder who needed a trim became a new customer. She is connected. Seeds are planted They are being watered.
The people in the orange shirts hugged her and her kids. They cried, left the scoop in Long Beach, and went home wondering what other surprises He has in mind.

Ed Ditto