Coconut & Lychee Extracts

I noticed my shampoo and conditioner bottles the other day, items to which I generally pay little attention. Apart from the usual sales patter (‘pampering and nourishing for all hair types’), I noted some of the celebrated ingredients they claim to possess: ‘coconut & lychee extracts’. Why would having coconut and lychee make my hair any cleaner? Or render my scalp the fresher? Assuming such ingredients have that desired effect, who first felt the need to try them out? I inspected my conditioner bottle for comparable claims. Sure enough, it boasts pomegranate and grapefruit. Why?? The small print details the negligible quantities involved; one wonders why the manufacturers even bother. Yet they announce these tiny fruit extracts with fanfare, presumably because it appeals to the punter. Shampoo makers are not daft; they do their research and know what sells. When I bought them, I was oblivious, merely approving of the modest price tag. The more discerning consumer of hair products doubtless considers carefully which fruit extracts are included, and the potential good such additions will make. We distrust that which is purely synthetic, man-made, lab-produced. Deep down, we yearn for the naturalism of Eden, the simpler and purer splendour of God’s untarnished creation. We know that anything man touches turns to dust; that which comes from God, radiates life. The gospel- by which I mean God's plan to redeem fallen humans- was entirely conceived in heaven. Unsullied by human compromises and bickering, it was subjected to no committee or boardroom for approval. From heaven it came, on earth it was executed, and to heaven those who accept it now go.