The past few weeks when we all pile outside to go anywhere, it is so neat that the season change is so obvious, by even the not so obvious things! Of coarse brilliantly colored leaves falling all around and shriveled up flowers are the give aways to those with less than keen perception. But for those with a gift for attention to detail there are other clues.
While we were leaving a store, the weather was just beginning to get a chill. The fact that we had turned our calendar page to November did not matter, and we failed to grab coats before going out the door that morning. As the first bite of the wind hit our faces, little S. said "Mommy, I love it! It smells just like snow!" Now, mind you, she is only four! How does she know what snow smells like? Well, she does, and for sure the air did! We scrambled to the car and all talked about the things we love about the change in weather.
I said how much I love to dress in fuzzy sweaters and make all kinds of soup and chili recipes. Usually I have two or three favorite sweaters and by spring I have to throw them out! They have been so over worn, even Molly our dog is sick of looking at them! Another thing I notice by often donning the same thing a time or two (!) between washings, (though not always so great!) is I can tell exactly what soup or chili I made the last time I wore it! Off it goes and into the wash! (you see it guarantees circulation. I inevitably have the favorite, and might never give the others a chance... Please don't categorize me as a complete lazy slob!) But it still gives me the reminder. Yum!
Smell is said to be the most effective memory maker and reminder. I cannot open a new box of leather shoes and not think of the time when I was about 9 and got my first pair of shoes that "I chose!" Every time I smell doublemint gum I think of my mom, and the smell of Love's Baby Soft perfume makes me remember (with a little twitch in my eye) junior high school! All of this nostalgia! where is all of this going?!?!
We have a spiritual smell too! God says our prayers are a smell to Him.
Psalms 141:2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
The smell of our prayers are to be sweet and pure. The book of Leviticus is full of specifics on the incense and smells in the temple. I am sure there are huge applications on all of that, but another blogger will have to do it better justice than I will do here! Suffice it to say... we have a smell before the Lord! Whether fresh or rancid, it is there. I cannot help but know that others can "smell" it too! How often do we spend time with the Lord and let his aroma get all over us? Is our "spiritual perfume" the first thing someone notices? Is it good or bad?!
Back to memory being so closely tied to smell, I know one reason why God made us that way. We need all the help we can get! I want every sense to be able to connect me with God and his ways! I hope to be a sweet smell to Him, and in overflow th others around me. I hope to be like Onesiphorus, who oft refreshed Paul in prison. I hope to see others how God would have me to, and in seeing their need be a conduit of God to meet it.
All this hoping is for naught unless there are actions behind it. Like faith without works is dead, hope deferred maketh the heart sick! Let me not defer these hopes! God has given me all the tools I need to ensure I smell great, and I need to put into practice those things.
"Read your Bible, pray every day and you'll grow-grow-grow!" Funny, even as a kid I always thought of a flower when I sang that song. Flowers smell good, don't they?! :)
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