Speaker: Darlene Sala | Series: Encouraging Words | Bible study teacher Beth Moore tells of the day she was waiting to board a plane when she caught sight of a thin, disheveled elderly man bent over in a wheelchair.  What struck her most, Beth said, was his long, stringy, tangled gray hair. God began to speak to her.

“Lord, please don’t make me witness to this man. Not now.” she argued with God.

Then she heard God say, “I don’t want you to witness to him. I want you to brush his hair.”

In obedience Beth very reluctantly knelt down in front of the man and asked, “Sir, may I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?” He looked up at her with absolute shock, responding, “If you really want to.”

Beth found a brush in the old man’s bag and began carefully to work the tangles out of his matted hair.  She learned that he had had open heart surgery, but his wife had not been well enough to visit him.  Now, months later, he was on his way home to her, thinking what a mess he must be for his dear bride.[1] In the end, both Beth and the elderly man were blessed by what I like to call “the ministry of the hairbrush.”

This story especially speaks to me because at a time when I had a torn rotator cuff and could not raise my hand to my head, a friend of mine volunteered to style my hair whenever I had a special event. Truly hers too was the “ministry of the hairbrush.”

What skills has God given you? Do be sensitive to His voice when He asks you to use them. Scripture says, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them” (Romans 12:6). You never know how you will bless someone with something as simple as a hairbrush.
[1] Story related by a friend.