I spend most of my days nestled away in our sweet, blessed, faith-centered salon. I do life there, I polish nails, I make hands happy, I scrub feet, I daydream probably too much, I struggle, I listen as others struggle, I celebrate, I praise, I sometimes cuss, I repent, I pray–the life of a Jesus-freak nail tech is colorful. I pray that the hands I touch go out into the world and BOLDLY touch the lives and hands of others.
There are days in the salon that I love to talk…and there are days that I just listen. I listen as my clients unveil both the triumphs and trials of their lives. I listen as God speaks to my heart.
As a nail tech, it’s always refreshing to change seasons. New seasons mean color changes. In nature, leaves change colors, temperature changes, and day-light time changes. In the salon world, nails and hair change colors allowing us to match up with our beautiful and changing scenery. The neon brights of summer are finding their resting place for winter, and the deep, rich fall hues are dancing freely upon my nail tech table. Being born in late September, I must let you know that fall feels very much like home to my soul.
A sweet friend came in for her regular nail appointment just a few days ago. We began as usual-small talk, catching up, and choosing a fresh color. We made a drastic change. We took a leap from OPI’s classic Cajun Shrimp (orange-coral) straight into OPI’s Lincoln Park After Midnight. By the name, you can tell it is DARK. It’s basically black with a hint of purple. It’s deep. It’s rich. The color was a personal invite right into the season of FALL. It was a warm bonfire on a cool night, it was a slow hayride with true friends, it was a childhood trip to the pumpkin patch, it was the crunch of an over-roasted marshmallow. I sure did get lost in that color. With each brush stroke of that OPI nail polish, I was frolicking deeper and deeper into fall.
My mind began to wander…God began speaking to my heart. I began to think about darkness, and I began to ponder light. For the entire summer, I had been working with brights…except for an occasional weirdo that says what the heck give me black nails in mid-July. (love y’all) I had forgotten that with deep darks my manicurist skills were totally put to the test. With darks, mistakes STAND OUT. The wrong turn of the brush sure does leave a mark. It’s difficult to camouflage dark mistakes. I continued to polish slowly and meticulously-trying to cover the nail. I may have temporarily stopped breathing. I wanted the nail to be covered, and I wanted my work to make her happy until the next time. My mind was still wondering…and God was still speaking. Hang with me here.
I heard my client say, “Hey, I really think I want sparkles this time.” She woke me up and brought my mind back to the nail table. I said, “Awesome! I love sparkles on EVERYTHING!” Sparkles make EVERYTHING BETTER!” For those of you that are not aware, this is true. Sparkles have power.
God spoke to my heart through that manicure and I have been thinking about if for days. Think with me here as we talk polish, we talk sparkles, and we talk JESUS.
See, our walk with Christ so often times becomes just like me trying to attempt a flawless manicure with purple-but-almost-black polish. We twist this way, we turn that way, we do everything in our human power to avoid a mistake, we walk right, we veer left, we get sloppy, we overcorrect, sadly we sometimes just give up because it just does not seem “good enough.”
Here is my manicure with Jesus revelation. Jesus FINISHED it with sparkles. He finished it in with SHINE. He is the super shiny top coat that makes it alright and makes it ALL RIGHT. It’s nothing we do.
Despite our struggle and fallen ways….it was FINISHED at THE CROSS with the perfect ending and polished touch…JESUS.
