Head Lice

I had a very recent, very real encounter with head lice.

A couple of things about lice:

It’s not a particularly fun thing to have. Apart from the itchy scalp, costly treatment, and having to do an overhaul of your home, you are morally obligated to call everyone that you have hugged in the past week to let them know that they might have lice. And, if they do have lice, it is, in fact, because of you. You can imagine that some of these conversations are a bit uncomfortable and others downright hysterical.

Apart from the humor, I learned quite a bit about sin and about how Christ’s work on the Cross really does extend to the ugliest parts of us.

Lice, like my sin, contaminates every part of my life. My home, my work, my social life, the way I interact with others, the way I look, the way I feel, the car that I drive, the bed I sleep in, the clothes I wear, my habits, my thought patterns, my mood. Everything. But more than that, the repercussions of lice are not limited to my own scalp and self. Rather, everyone that I come into contact with is affected by my infestation.  What an interesting and graphic picture this paints of the way my sin worms its way into the lives of others and hurts them as well.

My experience with head lice was particularly ill-timed. One of my best friends from college, a friend I will refer to as Helga in order to protect her identity (I’ve always wanted to do that!), had just arrived to visit from out of town.  How miserable for her?! She had driven a considerable distance to spend the weekend with me only to sit with me during a lice treatment, examine the nits combed from my scalp, watch me awkwardly vacuum my car, and laugh as I frantically shoved bedding and pillows into the drier.  Helga insisted on staying with me, laughing (somewhat nervously) at the risk of her own infestation.  She ate bad Chinese food with me and baked an apple pie. And she did all of this with a smile, demanding that I also be cheerful and enjoy myself.

I was so shocked and undone by Helga’s grace. The truth is, if faced with that same situation, I would have much preferred to stay in my sterile, squeaky clean, lice-free bubble.  I would have bought my friend some new hair clips and peaced out faster than you could say "Rid."  But Helga did not respond that way.  Instead, she shoved her way into my louse-y scalp and bad mood.  She put her squeaky-clean hair at risk in order to love me.  In a very tangible way, Helga showed me Jesus.

So often, I expect Jesus to respond to my sin (or lice) the way that I would respond: to be completely disgusted by it.  To refuse to work into it. To look at my brokenness and to run like mad. But that just is not biblical.  Over and over, Scripture tells us that Jesus did not run from the broken, the unclean, the social outcasts, the ugly.  Far from running from them, He touched them lovingly, offering them healing and hope.

Matthew 9:10-13 reports:

“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’ ”

Jesus did not come for the sterile and tidy.  He came for the busted up, the damaged goods, the messy, the lepers, and the lice-ridden.  He came to work in sinners so that He could take the weak and the ugly and turn them into something beautiful and useful to Himself. He does this so that people will see how great, compassionate, powerful, good, and loving our Father is…

“ ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” - 2 Corinthians 12:9



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