Recently I was looking for a picture for one of my posts. I wanted a green landscape. Scrolling through pictures, some were so green that I could smell them as clearly as if I were sitting there. If you've ever broken leaves on a plant or if you have been in a really lush forest, you might have an idea of the smell that I am referring to.
It happened again the following week while looking for another similar picture. This time it stayed on mind. I knew that there was a reason. I asked God what he might be trying to tell me with those pictures. The smell reminded me of my childhood, which was spent outside, swimming, making mud pies, collecting critters and climbing trees or singing to them. (Yes, really.)
I loved the water too but I would have to say by far that in the woods, was my favorite place to be. Of course by the teenage years I started drifting from that. And when I started having kids, I stopped going outside all together. Babies, bugs and sun... It just wasn't a good mix for me. When the kids got old enough to be entertained by outside, I stole that moment to catch up on something else that needed doing inside.
Since that last picture, I've thought a lot about how life and the world distract us from God. The more we learn, the more that we do for ourselves and the less that we look to God to provide. We live by our plans and talk about our needs and do what we want to do.
We build our own houses, make our own gadgets and technology and then we surround ourselves with our things. Then we wonder why feel so caged up. There is no reflection of God in any of it. We're not only not looking at his future and what he can do, we aren't even looking at what he's already done and where he's been, or still is. Yet we ask ourselves, why is God so far away?
You might be wondering, how smelling a picture and going outside, relate to being closer to God? The smell was so strong and so alluring, it was calling my name. (I wish that I had saved the picture).
It really got me thinking about the purpose and use of our senses. He created 5. I hear messages about him. I see his word in my bible. I taste evidence of him as I profess it with my mouth; his word and what he has done in my life. That only leaves 2 more. Touch and smell.
How much do I touch anything that God has made? Or celebrate it? I love my family. Clearly, God made each member. But the members in my family are 'man'. Going in my yard, still reflects 'us'. How long has it been since I have gone somewhere that only reflected God. Where there was no evidence of man at all? -To fully appreciate what only he has made.
...calling my name.
And then there was smell... I was at a loss. I started thinking about what I did know about smell. Studies indicate that aromatherapy affects our mind and mood. It is the smell of food that arouses our appetite. Tasting wouldn't nearly be as good without smell. Familiar smells hold the power to connect us to a different time and place.
In fact every time that our kids go see their great grandmother, we laugh because when they come home, they each smell like Nanny. This might be a little far-fetched but Ecc 3:20 says that we came from dust and maybe somehow; that deep earth smell is a familiar reminder of home. Or maybe, in being deep in those woods, there is a smell that only my soul recognizes as God.
Maybe all 5 of our senses are given for the purpose of identifying his nearness and his goodness. Even smell.
Psalms 107:9 - says that he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. If smell increases the appetite for it and amplifies the taste of it... How much more powerful could it be standing in his presence, if I made it so that every sense could only focus on him?
Sanctuary...
That aromatherapy bit must have some truth in it also. The mountains, rocks and sand all filter water. The trees and plants filter air. Standing in the middle of all of that filtering and 'freshness' would have to have an invigorating effect on me as well. Not only filtering my mind of it's contaminants but slaking the pollution of the world from my soul.
Leviticus dedicates several chapters (see 17-20) to "Separating ourselves from the world and the worlds ways." Obviously that's more of a reference to a lifestyle. But what about as a hard reset? To be transformed by the renewing of my mind. (Romans 12:2)
I don't know about you but I could use a hard reset.
I pray that this post lingers on your thoughts as it did mine. -That it plants a seed of desire to not only find that place but to go there. Regularly. The earth is FULL of his goodness. (Psalms 33:5) May we each find our own private sanctuary within it.
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You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. (Isaiah 55:12 NIV)
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