After school today I went to the haircutters. As I was sitting there wondering why "Can't Hurry Love" plays every time I get a haircut, a smiling young couple walked in. The woman was about six months pregnant.
The man sat down to get his haircut, and the not-quite-fluent Vietnamese haircutter lady began some small talk. He smiled. She smiled. The pregnant girl smiled.
Then the haircutter lady said, "Your wife --"
"Girlfriend."
Jerk, I exclaimed, as loudly as you can without saying anything at all.
"Oh, girlfriend? She pregnant?"
"Yes."
And, as the man grew increasingly angry-looking, the haircutter lady began to discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of boy-children versus girl-children (the baby in question, the one that will be born when "she's due in June," is a boy), and how girl-children are easier to raise than boy-children when they are little, but that girls are harder when they grow up.
I'm pretty that sure a guy who can't commit to his pregnant girlfriend isn't the most relevant person to talk to about the challenges of being a dad during the teen years. This guy seemed to share my uncertainty.
I think maybe I was sending some of that jerk through the mirror network.
As I left, I looked back at the girlfriend/mom -- who was still smiling -- and wondered whether the haircutting conversation bothered her.
Could it be possible that it didn't?
1 comment:
Great post Emily. I love the way you express your everyday encounters. I also agree with your assesment.
Some thoughts:
Obviously the Vietnamese hair cutter hasn't been completely assimilated into the American culture. How dare she assume that this pregnant girl would be married. How intolerent is that? (Is my sarcasm coming through?)
Maybe the smiling girl was still smiling because no one in her life has ever said it was wrong to have sex outside of marriage. Maybe she's never been in a Bible believing God honoring church. Maybe she's never had a caring Christian friend. No one else would ever tell her sex should be between a husband and a wife. The government doesn't; the schools dont'; her schoolmates don't; her television sets and the movie screens don't; society doesn't. In fact all her life she has heard sex anytime is okay - just be safe.
Maybe the smile was for show. Maybe she knows and just doesn't care about what God thinks.
Maybe the boyfriend got angry because some time in his life he heard that God said sex should be between a husband and a wife. Maybe he was under conviction and he got mad at that conviction. Maybe he also doesn't care what God thinks.
Let's pray for their salvation!
The misssion field is ever increasing around us.
Jesus told His disciples in John 4"...Behold I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest."
Matthew 9:37
"Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.'"
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