Hairnets.
Style smashers and smile bringers.
Jud and I met in the college kitchen.
He wore a white cap, the kind you see in old fashioned photos of soda jerks. He was no jerk and hauled heavy pans and metal containers of milk, no soda in sight.
My role required a hairnet, since I served food.
Gotta say, “Love’s blind.”
Haven’t thought much about those hair protectors until this past weekend when our church held a Packathon for hungry children in a remote mountain village in Haiti. Since we were handling food, hairnets were necessary. Over the course of Friday evening and the better part of Saturday, we packed more than 50,000 meals.
Dry food.
Nutritious.
Sealed.
Water added when cooked.
Packed and sent with Love from old and young folks from our church and the community. On a beautiful Fall day hundreds chose to slip on a hairnet, roll up sleeves because God nudged Huntley and Tom Skinner to teach us how to Love kids we’d never met but needed to know God cared they were hungry.
In Sunday School, Father Borgman taught on love, better still, he represents Love to the rest of us strugglers, caught in nets less forgiving than the ones we wore on our heads the day before.
With all the divisiveness in our country, families and double-mindedness in ourselves, sometimes, it’s a struggle to love. Each Sunday we’re reminded, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind… You shall love our neighbor as yourself. ”
When in doubt, Love anyway.
Christ Church is full of Love. Sunday after Sunday there’s Food for the hungry. We need only make our way to the altar, open our hands and hearts to receive.
No hairnets needed.
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Finished N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Joy. Reminded and even rebuked to care about this world; not the one we are passing through, but the one into which Christ was resurrected. This world is not an ugly place to be endured, but one where the redeemed have a chance to serve those for whom Christ died – more than just ourselves. Plenty of opportunities to serve without protective nets.
Love how God is using you sister.
Dale
Good morning Jan from snowy Colorado! I forwarded your blog to a couple of friends who have ministries in Haiti…I know they will be encouraged to hear of your churches Packathon. Love how you take something as ordinary as a hairnet and weave it in to a spiritual lesson that inspires and challenges!
So timely are always your words. We are in Aruba and even by the pool, Buechner and y.o.u. make joy come alive.
“Joy is always all-encompassing; there is nothing of us left over to hate with or to be afraid with, to feel guilty with or to be selfish about. Joy is where the whole being is pointed in one direction, and it is something that by its nature a man never hoards but always wants to share. The second thing is that joy is a mystery because it can happen anywhere, anytime, even under the most unpromising circumstances, even in the midst of suffering, with tears in its eyes. Even nailed to a tree. ”
God’s Love is a wonder and shows up in so many mysterious ways. Surprises us, more each day as we love our neighbors as ourselves!
So encouraging, and so challenging. Thank you for your willingness to be God’s hands and feet, and encouraging us to do the same. There really are lots of ways to show others love, aren’t there? We just need to look!
PS – I can’t wait until you figure out how to put photos on here! Would love to see a picture of you and Jud from when you were first dating <3