My Mother's Scent

March 23 was my mom's birthday. She would have been 86. She went to Glory six months ago. I miss her more than I could ever pen. She not only gave me life, but she showed me JESUS. I am forever thankful.

BUT what I wanted to share with you is how absolutely COOL God is!

Yesterday in my mom's honor, I decided to wear HER perfume. I wear TABU most everyday of my life. My mother wore NAVY the last few years of her life. I keep her bottle of NAVY in a special box in my room which also has her last night gown and the DVD of her service, etc. SO I put on her perfume all day. I noticed that it didn't particularly blend with my chemistry, like it did hers, but I wore it all day anyway.

THEN I went to the little devotional book that mom always read: OUR DAILY BREAD. On March 23 the title was SIGNATURE SCENT. It mentioned how certain smells will cause us to think about certain times in our lives, or certain people. For sure NAVY caused me to think of my mom. The devotional let us to Exodus 30: 34,35 which talks of a special recipe for a fragrance ONLY allowed in the tabernacle for worship. A scent that GOD and the people would KNOW meant worship was going on between the Holy of Holys and humbled human beings. This fragrance was used NO OTHER place, but for worship in the Tabernacle.

THEN the devotional took us to 2 Cor 2: 14,15 where the New Testament teaches that WE, Believers in Jesus, are a sweet fragrance that is acceptable (pleasing) to God. God uses Christians (me and you) as His "signature scent" to the world. What kind of smell am I giving off to the world? Do I draw people to Christ, or do I turn them away? Are people drawn to the Christ in me, or do they run? WOW...what a thought!

I felt so GOD HUGGED when I read this and realized that GOD had placed it in there TODAY for me, on my mom's birthday. NAVY will always remind me of my mother, but she would want me to boldly wear and be the sweet fragrance of my life that is pleaseing to my Lord Jesus.

GOD is so awesome in HIS ways to HUG us on days when we need HIS special touch. If it was on any other day, that devotional would not have had the same meaning, as it had on my mom's birthday, when I was wearing her scent in honor of her.

I am so thrilled that GOD loves like that! His hugs are so sweet, so powerful, and so personal.

What a mighty God we serve!

Raindrop Grief

My precious mother went to Glory on Sept 14, 2009. She and I were very close. I find tears come without warning and just now starting to have more control.

Yesterday my husband and I went for a motorcycle ride. I had never seen the sky so blue, nor the clouds so very white. My eyes were drawn to the skies, then tears would come, and I would struggle to wipe them away.

Dark Clouds were ahead and at one point my husband pulled over and suggested we put on the raingear.

So I put on the rain gear, which included a face shield.

It was not long and the rain began to pound against my face shield. It did not touch my face, but my vision was blurred by the many raindrops on my shield. Everything I looked at, I viewed through rain drops on my shield. For miles rain filled the ditches beside us and flowed down the country roads - but my husband continued to take our motorcycle in the direction of home. I knew that soon the sun would come out again, the rain gear would come off, and I would see life without the rain dropped shield.

It became very clear to me that it was a picture of my grief.

My grief is great and the tear drops are heavy, even flooding my pathway...but with GOD, I will keep moving and HE will dry my tears and brighten my path.

This is the way life is suppose to be. We are suppose to loose our parents, they are not to loose their children. We all agree that is the way life is suppose to be, so I will walk through this and hopefully become better because of it.