SCENTS OF THE PAST
by
Gayle Farris
Have you ever had a “flash back”, when you smell something that you had not…in a long long time? Perhaps it was the aroma of a food you ate as a child. Maybe you were walking in park and caught the fragrance of a flower or shrub that you remember growing in your Grandmother’s garden. While shopping in a crowded mall you get a “whiff” of a cologne or perfume and it reminds you of someone. Smells can trigger memories…..special memories that we didn’t even know that we had.
She treasured her Bible
When my Mother passed away a few years ago, I was left with many of her personal things that she treasured dearly. One of those was her Bible. I didn’t realize at the time just how special and precious that the Bible…HER Bible would become to me. About 2 months after Mom had gone home to be with the Lord, ( because of her obvious faith and her example she set for family, I KNOW that is where she is) I began to use Her Bible in My daily Bible study.
I was distracted by her cologne
Each time I would look up my scripture for the day, I would become distracted by several things. First of all was the scent of Mom’s favorite cologne, Estee Lauder was a gift she received on birthdays, Mother’s Day, or Christmas. Over the years her bible started absorbing the scent. Mom had read her Bible thru 8 or 9 times, so you know that it was open a lot. I came to look forward to opening up the bible because of the welcoming scent and the memories it would conjure up.
She wrote on pages
The other distracting yet heart warming thing was all the “journaling “ that Mother did all throughout the Bible. She wrote on the page where a scripture was read at a relatives funeral, she put a check mark beside a verse that a friend found “got them thru a bad time”, and she wrote on the pages in the front & the back.
Entries like “Christmas 1996”, we had a wonderful family Christmas…….15 of us here. Teddy & Melynda’s first Christmas together. And later she wrote , I am so blessed to have such a precious family, there were 18 of us here for Christmas today.
She documented the birth of children
Mary, Teddy’s Mother spent the day with us and it was little T.J.’s 1st Christmas, he is only 2 months old and already has MY heart. She documented the birth of Granddaughter Tammy & the adoption of our son Allen. I felt as though each time Mother read her Bible, it opened up her heart and she had to write down her thoughts because someday one of her children would be reading them. Knowing that special scent permeates the pages of that tattered old bible truly warms my heart and each time I open it, it is as if I am breathing in the scent……THE SCENT OF MOTHER.
Sights & smells make us keenly aware
That God gives thought to our every care.
Be still and know that HE is GOD.
