Grease“You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.” (Psalm 23:5) The 1978 movie Grease starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John is about the friendships, romances and adventures of a group of high school kids who greased their hair in the 1950s. Greasers like Fonzie in Happy Days anoint their heads with slick oil-based products to look cool so they can Rock Around the Clock with Bill Haley and the Comets. Unlike the greasers, in David’s times shepherds anointed their sheep with oil not to make them hip but to repel insects. If insects are allowed to lay eggs in the soft membrane of the sheep’s nose, the eggs become wormlike larvae, driving the sheep up the wall with A Bug’s Life. The ewes stop milking and the lambs stop growing, and that’s baaaaaaad. So the shepherd anoints the sheep’s head with an oily repellant that keeps the bugs away and the flock at peace. Secondly, the shepherd anoints the sheep to heal the many wounds that result from living with the flock. Thorn pricks, rock cuts, or sheeps banging their heads too hard against a tree. The shepherd regularly inspects his sheep because he doesn’t want today’s wound to become tomorrow’s infection, or worse, fatality. Like Olivia Newton-John, the shepherd is Hopelessly Devoted to his sheeps, so he pours on the healing oil liberally to heal them. One of God’s Name is Yahweh Rohi, the LORD is our shepherd (Psalm 23:1), and He anoints us with the oil of the Holy Spirit to repel the bugs of affliction out of our lives and to heal us of all our wounds — emotional, physical, relational and financial. If the circumstances of life are driving us Nuts like Barbra Streisand, or if we’ve just received some Exit Wounds from Steven Seagal, then we need to go first to God the Shepherd. Before we go about Finding Nemo, and before we call Ghostbusters, we need to go to God in prayer because “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:3) Then we need to bow before God because to be anointed the sheeps must lower their heads to receive the oil. We need to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God so that He may exalt us in due time. (1 Peter 5:6) Sheep don’t understand how the oil works, they don’t have to because Grease is the Word. It’s enough to know that something magical happens in the presence of their shepherd that happens nowhere else. And only after we get anointed with the Holy Spirit that our cups begin to run over with the blessings of God, and surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives. (Psalm 23:6)Copyright © 2003 Eddy Ministries. All rights reserved. Subscribe/Unsubscribe: eddyn@earthlink.net
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