He Anointeth My Head with--Mayonnaise!

It was one of those days when I was trying to get rid of something that we didn't need

under the bathroom sink. 

It was a little canister of some kind of tea tree hair-growing gel that had been under the sink for years instead of growing hair on Jonathan's head.

When I asked him about throwing it away, he thought he should use it instead.

So--much to our dismay later--I began to apply the gel.

I said gel, but it was more like goo, a really, really, really sticky, greasy goo--

probably rather old, after sitting under our bathroom sink for several years.

We thought maybe the more I rubbed it into his warm head, the better it would be, 

but in fact, it got worse.

It was so bad that we could not get it rinsed out at all, even after shampooing, and decided that now that we had it all through his hair, he may as well sleep with it.

Maybe some hair would grow by morning!!!!

I covered his pillow case with a thick towel and an old pillow case.

Unfortunately, by  morning we did not notice any new hair, but we certainly noticed that his old hair looked atrocious! 

Since his one hand was still not completely healed, I scrubbed his hair out myself with shampoo. No better.

We were afraid to try GoJo or GooGone. 

So I scrubbed it out with DISH SOAP.  

A second time with DISH SOAP.

What a mess!

It was still awful!

 Hopelessly, he ate his breakfast and went to work with that thick, hopeless grease still in his hair.

Duck eggs from the neighbor made a great breakfast, greasy hair and all.

Lord Jesus, sometimes my mind feels stuck up just like that, with a bunch of goo in my brain.

I can't just scrub it out with shampoo or conditioner or even dish soap.

It's just one awful, mysterious mess.

I wish I understood some things better, about You, about other people's hearts, about myself.

Like Bro. James Plank said last weekend, he used to have to try to have everything figured out.

Now he just doesn't even try.

Sounds like good counsel from someone older and wiser, for us poor people whose petals aren't all there anymore. 

My mom used to say she had a "mystery bag" that she put things into when she couldn't understand.

She called it "God's mystery bag."

It was a help to her to place things in it that she could not understand.

I needed a mystery bag tonight when I could not sleep.

We can't always understand His ways, and because we are human we don't even always understand each others' ways--or even our own.

We need a mystery bag sometimes.

And we need mayonnaise!

Finally one morning, in desperation, I remembered that I have successfully scrubbed black grease out of jeans--with oil.
Could I scrub that goo out of Jonathan's hair with oil?

Well, all I had for oil was expensive olive oil, so I got the bright idea to use mayonnaise, which was cheaper.

And wacko or not, it WORKED!

Two applications of mayonnaise cleaned that goo right out of his hair!
The first one got most of it, and the second one did the final trick.

So, Lord, go ahead and anoint my gooey head with oil--

even if it has to be in the form of mayonnaise! 

Scrub all the goo into Your Great Mystery Bag

and just let me rest in You.