COUNTING HAIRS [W, 6-4-25]

BEYOND WINTER: The Irrelevant Musings of An Old Man—COUNTING HAIRS [W, 6-4-25]

 

I have a woman friend who has a rare and mysterious skin illness. The doctors say no one knows what causes it or how to treat it. One result of it is that she is losing her hair.

That’s more traumatic for a woman than a man. Men in general don’t prefer baldness, but it’s no big deal if we have no hair on our heads. Some guys even shave their heads, choosing the bald look. I did not choose it, but I’ve been bald and white-bearded since I was 45, so the comment I get most often is, “You haven’t changed a bit.”

If a woman loses her hair, though, it’s more than just a bit of a change. The change to her sense of self is even greater than to her physical being. [Yes, I checked this insight with some women.]

Jesus says that even the hairs of our heads are numbered [Luke 12:7.] That’s how carefully God pays attention to us. “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.”

I’m not sure I want that much attention from God. I do lots of things I’d rather God not know about. On the other hand, God should cut me some slack, because I’m not nearly as much work when it comes time for God to count the hairs of our heads.

Hair has always been important to people as we try to present ourselves to the world, more so now, I think, than ever before. Men now not only sport the bald look but some have long, flowing locks. Women color their hair in hues that are not even in the Crayola 120 box. God must be more intrigued than ever before while counting our head hairs. Is this what I had in mind when I created these people and realized I had to count the hairs of their heads?

Hair is especially important to cancer patients. Not much of a problem to me; I was already bald when I got cancer. The chemo thinned out my beard some, and my right leg went bald, but that was all.

Helen, though, lost her hair entirely. He beautician cried when it got so thin and scraggly that she had to cut it all off, so that Helen could start wearing a wig. When her chemo was over, Helen burned that wig. [It was already half-way there, since she forgot she was wearing it while pulling cookies out of the oven and got her bangs singed.] Through the years she has sewn many beautiful head-foofies as hair substitutes for women on chemo.

It's nice to quote Luke 12:7, about God counting head hairs, but with all the world’s problems, shouldn’t God be working on more important stuff than counting head hairs? Well, if you are like my friend with the strange skin disease, no. She takes comfort in knowing God is still counting, even though the count takes less time now for her.

I think Jesus is simply saying that God deals with each of us individually. What you need from God is different from what I need. What God wants from you is different from that God wants from me.

Each of us has a different hair count—some many, some few. But all our heads get counted, every hair.

John Robert McFarland