– Secret Place Insights –
Dear One, reading the Bible in a private place, while rested and unhurried, seldom fails to bring to the reader a deeper understanding, a new insight, or even a challenge where one had never appeared in previous readings. Such was the case one morning when I sat with 1 Corinthians 11:2-16.
I hesitate to even write about the new challenge, for I do not know what to do with it. I am sure, in time, that I will connect with others to discuss it. When I do, I expect to be told to not make too much of it. But right now, I do not understand how we have not made much of it. Scripture, in the New Testament clearly states, that we woman should have heads covered during prayer and worship. And in 11:13, NIV, it calls us to “Judge for yourselves; Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?”
My memory of the late fifties, and early sixties, is of women wearing hats to church. And as a young junior high and high school girl, I seem to have a memory of wearing a hat myself from time to time. Curious, I just now, (during this writing) called a lifelong friend of my mother, one who still lives in my hometown of McBain, We attended the same church. I asked her what she remembers about hats being worn in church at that time. Her memory was strong, “Oh yes! We wore hats…all the women did. Don’t you remember all the new Easter bonnets? (That I remembered.) We seemed to wear hats until sometime in the seventies when things started getting casual.”
THIS Sunday, if I showed up at church wearing a hat, or a silk headscarf, congregants would begin to worry about me. They would likely think, “Oh how sad, Susanne is losing it. Poor Ron.” But would I be losing it, or would I be getting it?
I have to do some real thinking on this. The apostle Paul was a proponent of not losing sight of God’s teachings, while maintaining, or gaining, the trust of those he hoped to encourage in the faith. There is great wisdom there, but one also needs wisdom to know what one compromises and what one does not compromise – for God’s ultimate purposes. So, for now, at home, during private prayer, I have beside my Bible, a beautiful, powder blue, silk scarf, a gift from my oldest granddaughter’s trip to India. I have learned this. It seems appropriately humbling to cover my head before the Lord Most High.
A funny – recently Ron walked into my ‘space’ and noticed the I was wearing a scarf. He said, “Whoa, what’s this?” I replied, “Remember I told you about the reading in Corinthians?” Unfazed, he said, “Ah, yeah, whatever.”
“Ah, yeah, whatever…” sort of sums it up for now. Like I said, I don’t know just what to do with this recent concern, but it is something I feel compelled to think about, to learn more about. So for now, I’m just thinking, and… at home,…covering my head.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” 11 Timothy 3:16
Blessings,
Susanne
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