Cut Off

Yesterday’s local paper told me… When Logan Willimott was six-years-old he decided to grow his hair so it could be to cut off and donated to a charity.

This happened on Tuesday, one week after Logan’s 10th birthday. Logan said: ‘It feels a bit weird not having my long hair anymore, but there are loads of other people that need more hair than I do…’

Fifteen inches of Logan’s hair were sent to the Little Princess Trust, a wig-making charity for children without any hair, along with £1,000 that Logan raised.

In ‘No More Secrets’ Betty Webb describes her code-breaking during the Second World War. In 1941 eighteen-year-old Betty left home, joined the ATS (the women’s British Army) and signed the Official Secrets Act:

‘After the security talk on my first day at Bletchley Park, realisation hit – I was ‘cut off’. My family could not visit to check I had settled in and I could not tell them where I was posted.’

This morning reading about Job… a good, Godly, rich family man, living comfortably, happily, securely. Disaster strikes. His home and possessions are lost and destroyed, his family and servants are killed. He develops ‘painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.’

Unsupported by his wife, misunderstood by his friends – he’s cut off and alone. ‘Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.’

This afternoon in the garden roses need ‘dead-heading’, early flowering shrubs need pruning. Bits will be cut off for the health and beauty of the plants.

Jesus said: ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.’

The cutting off process may be unpleasant and painful, but it can bring health, life and beauty – as Logan, Betty and Job discovered. And when God’s involved…