For those of you that don’t know what the process of lice looks like, here is quick summary of the process. Once you find out that you have lice all hell breaks loose. You must wash all of your clothes, bedding, and towels. All of your backpacks, luggage, and belongings must be bagged in trash bags for a week. Then poison must be washed into your hair twice a day followed by intense, diligent nit picking strand by strand of hair. Not only are the eggs clear, but they are extremely hard to see and cannot be killed by poison so you must nit pick every day before they hatch. Then at night when you are finally done you must coat your hair in oil and sleep with a grocery bag on your head. Sleeping is tough because all of your stuff is bagged up so finding warm blankets is a struggle. In the morning you must wash out the oil with dish soap, dry your hair and begin the process again until you are completely lice free.
This is day 3 for me and I finally have been checked lice free. Through this long and extremely tough valley I have learned more about God’s heart than I ever have before. I have learned to be thankful with few, to be thankful for the comforts of pillows, beds, and blankets, and also to be thankful that I even have hair. By changing my perspective from the victim circle to the freedom circle God clearly spoke to me about how He is my nit picker.
Yesterday morning during my quiet time, He gently whispered in my ear, “Hannah I am your Divine Nit Picker, I will never grow weary or tired of picking out the strongholds in your life or cleaning you of your sin. I am obsessed with going after the one last nit and the one last sin in your life. I will never stop until you are clean and safe with me in Heaven. I will wash your head over and over again with my grace and continue to anoint your head with oil until your cup overflows. Even if you run back into your sin and struggles (get lice again) I will never grow tired or frustrated with you as I so lovingly clean you from every nit in your life.”
Wow. That hit me like a sack of potatoes. Ha! I know that if my two roommates, who have lice as well, went back and put an egg or bug in their hair after I continually cleaned their hair and picked out every nit these past 3 days, I would absolutely lose it. I would be done and say forget it. How could you go back to what was infecting your head so horribly? But God reminded me of how many times I go back to my old ways and go back to the things He has so lovingly freed me from and cleaned me from over and over again. And each time I go back to what is infecting my heart God has open arms and says, “Come back my beloved, let me clean you up, let me wash you clean, forget the apology, there’s no time for that, I just want to love you and lather you with my grace.” And in order to be clean we have to be willing to sit still and let Him do the work only He can do. We have to sit at His feet for hours and spend time letting Him clean us up. In the same way I have learned the beauty of healing by sitting and being still as I have sat still in front of my roommates for hours upon hours these past 3 days as they have picked through my hair. While our sin can never be hidden from God, He also knows exactly where to find each struggle in our lives. Nothing is ever hidden from God. He just asks us to be still, sit with Him, and let Him do His work that we could never do.
So in the midst of this valley, I know that valleys only exist in between mountains. God is here with me in the valley and will lead me to the mountain top so He will get all the glory! “When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other…” -Ecclesiastes 7:14
