Matt Shaha wanted to let
his hair grow out – really, really long. It wasn’t that he wanted to
rebel against his university’s grooming standards. It wasn’t that he
wanted his hair long so that it would bring attention to him. He had
another motive: love.
Matt’s mother, Melanie, doesn’t have any hair. She has battled a
reoccurring benign brain tumor on her pituitary gland since 2003.
First, she underwent neurosurgery to have it removed. Three years
later, it returned, so she underwent surgery again. In 2017, when the
tumor returned yet again, she underwent radiation treatments to shrink
the tumor. There were lasting effects from the treatments.
"About three months after radiation, all my hair started to fall out,
which I didn't know would happen," she said. "And the doctor said it
won't come back."
Melanie
wore hats everywhere she went to cover her bald head. “When
you wear a hat everywhere, you just stick out like a sore thumb,” she
said. “I don't mind being sick, but I do very much mind that I look
sick.”
Matt came up with the idea to let his
hair grow out, get it cut, and have his hair made into a wig for his
mom. He couldn’t do it while being a student at the university he was
attending… until Covid-19 hit. Beginning in March 2020, Matt finished
out his senior year at home. That’s when he began to let his hair grow
out. He let it grow for two years. At the end of March 2022, it had
grown out 12 inches. It was time for a haircut.
27-year-old Matt sent his hair to a small
business in Newport Beach, California called Compassionate Creations to
have them build a wig of his hair for his mother.
In mid-June, the wig arrived at their
home in Arizona. For the first time in four years, Melanie — sporting
her son's long strawberry blonde locks — said she looked like herself
again. *
Our sins don’t cause
baldness. The effects of our sins may not be visible at times.
However, our sins stain our souls and sin’s effects are fatal (Romans
6:23).
But God loves us and
desires to save us. So God gave His one and only Son to die on the
cross for our sins so that we can find forgiveness in Him and receive
the gift of eternal life (John 3:16).
When we accept His offer
on His terms, we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ. It’s not
that His righteousness hides our sins; it removes them. Washed by blood
of Jesus, our sins are gone and God sees in us the righteousness of
Jesus.
The Apostle Paul wrote
about when and how this covering is secured: “You are all sons of God
through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into
Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:26-27 NIV).
God will forgive our sins and clothe us with the righteousness of Christ
when we place our faith
and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from our
sins in repentance
(Acts 17:30-31),
confess Jesus
before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ
(Acts 2:38). He will continue to cleanse us and clothe us as we
continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).
Whether we look like it
or not, we are sick with sin. But there is a remedy: we can be covered
by His love. We can be clothed with Christ and live forever with Him in
a heavenly home.
-- David A. Sargent
*
Information gleaned from “Arizona
man grows hair out for 2 years to make wig for mom fighting brain tumor”
by Daniella Genovese of Fox News,
www.foxnews.com.
David A. Sargent,
Minister
Church of Christ at Creekwood
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
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