By Father Joseph Chan Wing-chiu
Since I had longer hair before, I tend to see hair falling out every time I take care of it, and I can’t help but “number the hairs of my head.”
We were taught to count many things from our earliest years: apples, oranges, bananas, and so forth. We learned to count and then learned to do arithmetic with all sorts of confusing symbols such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The concepts of arithmetic are so profound that there seem to be thousands of ways to explain them.
There is also a good deal of concepts about numbers in the Bible: This is the first day… This is the sixth day; and they became one flesh; Adam lived and died at the age of nine hundred and thirty years; …and when Noah was five hundred years old, he begat Shem, Ham and Japheth;… the ark shall be three hundred elbows long, fifty elbows wide, and thirty elbows high; … an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; …Give half to the poor, and to whom you have cheated, pay back four times as much.
The list goes on and on. But the best of all is the calculation about life as taught by Jesus: pray for your enemies!
How did the people in old times make such calculations? He who had been offended, let him avenge it; An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a life for a life. So when enemies met, it was about kill or be killed, let alone pray for each other.
The Jewish or the people in the Middle East, and ancient kingdoms used this retributive code of law to restrain and warn people against speaking or acting in a way that would harm the reputation, lives and property of others. From men’s point of view, it was fair, accepted, reasonable and even justifiable.
But if one is in such a vengeful state of mind, you will only put yourself in the position of the wrongdoer. If you are cruel to me, I will be cruel to you, and if you do not respect me, I will not respect you. In vengeance, one loses oneself and becomes a replica of one’s enemy. One becomes the same as their enemy, as the root of evil and corruption is planted in their life. When a wicked man does evil to you, you become the doer of evil like him. It is not worth it!
So Jesus is protecting us and leading us to let go of our hatred by reminding us to pray for our enemies. When we turn to a state of prayer, we are drawn closer to God. When you get closer to God, Jesus gains you; You pray for your enemies so that the favour of God may come upon them, and if they turn back, Jesus has gained him! This is the calculation of Jesus!
He counts every hair on our head, not because he is calculating, but because of his unfailing love for us.
I hope you will feel the love of God every day as you brush your hair.
