Heartening Acts of Kindness

The woman who cuts my hair doesn’t talk much while she works, so my attention tends to drift to the conversations going on between other stylists and their customers. Yesterday, across the room, a fashionable stylist with a mass of red ringlets cascading down her back was chatting with the elderly woman whose hair she was cutting when the woman’s husband arrived to pick her up. He was a bit stooped, had a lined face, and was dressed in well-worn jeans — perhaps a retired farmer or mechanic, I speculated.

Interestingly, the stylist called him over and gave him instructions about how to curl his wife’s hair; he obediently picked up the curling iron and followed her directions to curl over or under in the front and on the sides. The woman joked with her husband, “I would have had her cut the sides shorter, but you say I have big ears!” When it came time to leave and the woman struggled to transfer from the hairdresser’s chair to a wheelchair, I realized she was nearly blind. “I’d rather lose my hearing than my sight,” the stylist commented. “I would too,” the woman replied, “but you learn to live with the hand you’re dealt.”

It was heartening to see the kindness of the stylist, who took extra time to give the woman’s husband a lesson in curling hair, along with his willingness to take on a task that was outside his skill set for the sake of his wife and the blind woman’s acceptance of her limitation. Although the news is mostly filled with stories of rancor, we are surrounded every day by examples of thoughtfulness, devotion, and acceptance. When we follow the Advent admonition to open our eyes to see and our ears to hear, it becomes clear that the kingdom of God is indeed growing into fullness in our very midst. Behold!