Stop and Smell the Flowers

"The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come.  And the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land."  Song of Sol 2:12

How often are we walking so fast, rushing to get in and get out, or be somewhere by a certain time (which is good to be on time) and rushing just to get to the next thing on our agenda?  How often do we walk past a patch of carefully planted, beautifully placed and esthetically pleasing patch of flowers, but don't bother to stop, take notice or stoop to smell them?  The flowers and their loveliness can look something like a blurr of color catching only the corner of our eye, as we pace on.  By the way do you see the Love, God in this one above?

Still moving hurriedly but slowing down things start to come into focus.  I love going into Wal Mart (ok I don't love going into Wal Mart).  What I love is going in through the Garden Center to see the plants and flowers.  The petunias and pansies are all in bloom and cast a sweet intoxicating perfume all over me as I pass by.  I can not help but stop.  If we are in a hurry all the time the intensity of their color can seem faded and even dulled.  Of course I can not plant them in my yard cause, well you know, deer would mow them down in a night.  Their sweet aroma would beckon the deer over to the porch which would be no boundary for them.....they are hungry.  What a tempting delight of God's handiwork for our eyes, our noses and their stomaches.  So I enjoy them in the confines of the Garden Center.  With chemo apparently your sense of smell is altered which I experienced at a doctors office when she asked me to smell something and I said I could barely smell it.  They said it was pretty potent and surprised I could not smell it. Then I was reminded that our sense of smell does diminish somewhat through treatments.

But not with the flowers........praise God. I walked over to them, put my face down amongst their petals and waved my hand toward my face.  I took a deep breath over and over as their fragrance went all the way down to my belly button.  It was glorious.  I just kept waving and sniffing, waving and inhaling, waving and then.......someone came over as #onlyinTexas they might do, to ask,"  Honey are you alriiiiiight?"  I assured her I was fine and was just admiring God's perfume.  It did open up a conversation about Colorado and Arizona and how we could grow these flowers with no threat of the mowing deer.  She wants to move back while I told her I would settle for a visit.

"The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the Word of our God shall stand forever." Is. 40:8 and in v. 7b it says, "because the breath of the Lord blows upon it".  Have I ever considered the fragrance of the Lord as His breath.  I am so glad His breath will be sweet, healing and intoxicating to our souls.  Have I ever considered His is the same breath that sharply freezes our nose hairs in winter, that sends warning to us when something is burning, or reminds us when to change a dirty diaper?  Can that be as sweet aroma to me as well?  Some things in life really just stink, but they are sweet aroma to God and have the life giving breath of God in the midst of it.  He is the only one that can help me see and smell past the end of my nose.  The violets and pansies are especially nice.  

 Monday was Halloween and we passed out candy.  It is my least favorite holiday and I don't even look at it as a holiday.....yuk.  It has gotten way out of hand.....but so have a great deal of other things so we won't go there.  I have tried to find ways to make it more fun and more about other things than spooky stuff.  I have for years.  Last year I did a photo essay of all the people who came to our house.  A montage of kids dressed up at my door.  Some of those same faces came back, but not as many this year.  I did get exhausted from up down up down up down answering the door, but when else do you open your door without question to strangers?  So I asked before I opened, "Is it a trick or a treat?"  And as I would opened the door to see who was there I would say, "It's a treat! O look at all of you.  Now before you get candy you have to figure out who I am"  This year, not wanting to scare the little ones with my bald head, I decided to go as a bald eagle.  I know corny right?  No, I did not get pictures of them this year or of my outfit, but saw lots of homemade ones like mine.  So I put a white baseball cap on and taped a yellow beak on it, put on a furry brown poncho, a white furry scarf and a black chenille scarf boa for my wings.  That was it.  So I would tip my hat and say," I am bald and I can fly what am I".  And again as #onlyinTexas true fashion I got some pretty fun answers....... I got "vulcher?, turkey?" which I had not even thought of but told them great answers cause yes they too are bald..........even with the hint of "think symbol of America" they were stumped......made me worry about the little fellas.  Most of them got it after that hint.  It was fun.

So stop, get out of the truck,  slow down, smell the flowers next time and all the time.  Take your sweetheart a little nosegay of violets and tell them they are the fragrance of God.  You won't be disappointed.  Know the very breath of God, the very heart and essential oil of God is what you are smelling.  "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak"......(and breathe) AHHHHHHHHH!

It will make you never want to exhale.  Is what comes forth from my mouth as sweet?  Hope so.

"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to You, O Lord,  my strength and my Redeemer".  Ps. 19:14  "And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of  My hand, that I may plant the heavens,  lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, 'You are My people'" Is. 51:16