'Hun, your name is next on the list, I think'.
I'd gotten drowsy while reading my book and had decided to simply lie down on the chair next to me to get a quick nap in. Now, as the stylist gently jostled me awake, I realized it was my turn.
Stood up, shook my tingling leg from it's slumber, and in a momentary daze made my way over to the first station.
Shampoo. Rinse. Repeat. Condition. Rinse. Wrap up in a towel.
'I'll just trim off the dead ends. You have some of the most beautiful hair, baby-girl'.
My hair was actually long overdue a good washing and cut resulting in various split ends and a coarseness that could hardly be called healthy let alone beautiful, but her smile was genuine and I could tell she meant every word she spoke.
She was one of those rare souls that sees every single person as beautiful-from the inside out.
Just like Dolly Parton's character in Steel Magnolias, the woman chattered endlessly as she snipped a bit here and a lot there, working the magic that only a hair stylist can do to bring a mess of frazzled bed-head back to life.
I'd just met her, and I already felt like I'd known her all of my life. As we talked, laughter sprinkled our conversation as we bounced from topic to topic.
Our desire for cold weather and Christmas, already. How guys are a species from another planet. The fact that sometimes all you can do is laugh life off. The beauty of the Gospel. The power of prayer.
Again I am surprised by joy, and the fact that we often experience the love of Christ in the most unexpected of places.
In the place where exhausted college girls can nap in a small, run-down, welcoming hair salon and not be judged but rather sympathized with.
In the place where a woman with purple eyeshadow adopts a twenty-something year old for an hour, calling her 'hun' and 'baby-girl' and pouring out the words of wisdom God has taught her over the years to speak truth into her life.
In the place where cutting hair is a passion and a means to love people, not a way to store up earthly riches or sell people products they don't need.
She dried my hair and we chatted a bit more, and after she charged me way too little for the haircut she gave me a hug, because that's how she sends off every one of her customers- with a hug to keep them warm as they walk out her doors and into the cold battle-grounds of life.
The kingdom of God does not always have to be experienced in the midst of an intense worship session. The Father's love is not always most tangible in an African country. One does not have to walk through the doors of a church to experience Jesus.
The kingdom of God has come near to us. It is here and there. It is accessible and within our grasp. It is real and around us and meant to be acknowledged and experienced.
It's meant to be received. Meant to be shared.
It's in the every day lives of broken people who are blessed to have opportunities to love one another because 'He first loved us'.
The kingdom is both here and to come.
We need only to open our eyes a little wider.
