PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• Fun fact for you—up until about 1450, the same person who cut your hair was the same person you would go to for wound care and surgeries.
Yikes.
That would have given a whole new plotline to “Sweeney Todd!”
Beyond the sanitation issues of floating hair and open wounds, there are so many issues our modern-day perspective can identify with this former practice.
Thankfully, the two professions parted ways, but it’s a history that is still represented in today’s barbershop poles.
The red stripes represent blood, the white represents bandages, and the blue represents veins.
It is an important reminder that sometimes, we count on the wrong people for what we really need.
And while you’re not likely to go to your hairstylist for stitches these days, we often do we seek help from the wrong sources?
How many of us, when faced with a problem, turn to friends before we turn to Jesus?
How many of us rely on our own strength when we need to rely on the Holy Spirit’s?
In John 15:4-5 ESV, Jesus said, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
If we are to abide in Him, we need to be dependent upon Him for everything.
Just as the branches cannot be independent of the vine, we cannot be independent of Jesus.
We need Him.
He knows the number of hairs on our head and He is the one saves us from the disease of sin.
If we look at the barbershop pole again, we could look at the stripes in a different way.
The red represents the blood of Jesus, shed for us.
The white represents how His blood washed away our sins leaving us white as snow.
The blue is a color that represents faith and trust.
He is the ultimate solution for all that we could ever need.
Today, as you pray, thank Jesus for being the vine on which we can all depend.
Thank Him that by His stripes, we are healed.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you be dependent on Jesus before you try to be independent or dependent on anyone else.
