How can the smell of wispy weeds and ferns be so intriguing?
Every morning, Dusty spends time sniffing up and down the innocuous-looking
leaves in our path. Why? I have a theory – the plant that particularly causes her
to pause lies along a well-trod path, marked by deer and rabbit prints.
I’ve noticed sometimes that if a deer leaps across our path
while she’s not looking, as we approach the spot her head jerks back, her nose
twitches forward and she moves along an invisible path, sniffing the scent of
that which just passed.
Invisible things can nonetheless be real.
How many times do
you enter a room and detect an atmosphere? Perhaps a couple has been arguing
and there is a sense of tension and disharmony. Or, more pleasantly, some rooms
exude peace. Some portions of rooms do, too. I have a prayer alcove in the
living room, a place where the thick walls thinned to accommodate a window, and
my husband and son built in a pine seat and a shelf and there it is, a place of
retreat and contemplation. As soon as I sit down there, I concentrate on God.
There is an atmosphere, an aura of peace and tranquillity.
Paul wrote about Christians exuding the fragrance of Jesus.
To our shame, many times over the centuries we have exuded a stink of
judgmentalism, self-righteousness, and lovelessness. Some parts of the church
continue to do so. But there are many who take up the challenge of Jesus and by
his grace and Spirit begin to walk in his ways, think his thoughts, and
hopefully, exude his fragrance.
I have known people who have that sort of presence. I hope
you have, too. It’s not a superficial fragrance dibbled on behind the ears and
underneath the tongue, but a pervasive, solid sense of peace and hope, possible
because trust in the power and goodness of God enable us to let go of the
anxiety and doubt which we all have and step forward in peace.
May you and I encounter and exude such an atmosphere today,
by the grace of God.
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