I washed the pillows on the couch last night. That may not seem like a big deal but they had the “smell of Neal” on them. He spent so much time on the couch during his last weeks. Washing the pillows meant I was washing a reminder of him away. (I did feel that they needed a good washing to be sanitized.) Certain smells bring us back to an event or a person like the smell of pine trees remind me of our annual family tradition of getting our tree at the tree farm for Christmas. A certain perfume reminds me of Neal’s mom. Burning leaves remind me of a couple things: the fire we had a few years ago in the woods that got away from us, or our labor day family reunion of roasting marshmallows and singing around the camp fire or the mounds of leaves we have to rake every fall. Some smells bring back good memories and others not so good.
Neal and I had the opportunity to go to Israel and Turkey a few years ago with Bible teacher Ray VanderLaan. One of the teachings was in a little town where there was a market. You couldn’t sell anything is the market unless you offered incense to the god Zeus. That presented a problem for Christ followers because their allegiance was to the one true God and offering incense to Zeus was offensive to God. Roman generals would ride into town displaying their spoils of war amidst the clouds of burning incense to their gods. To those cheering for the general that represented a good smell. But those brought as captive slaves the smell represented their probable death.
2 Corinthians 2:14-15 says we are a fragrance of Christ to the world. What kind of smell are you giving off? One that represents the sweet smell of Christ or the foul smell of the world?
On the journey,
Trish
PS I am waiting for Grant and the boys to come today. Jenni, her mom and sister were starting to pack up their house. They can accomplish so much more without 2 little boys running around. 🙂 Jenni’s sister will bring her here tomorrow night on her way back to Grand Rapids where she lives. They will be here all week! Karsten comes home tomorrow for the whole week also!