West Cocoa Chat

Smells were on my mind (and in my nose) this morning. Now for those of you who read and are from locales north of us, please try to hold the laughter down to a small roar - it has been a long stretch of "cold" weather for us here in Central Florida. When I opened our garage door to start my day I was hit by the smell of "cold." There is a certain crispness to the air when its cold. Most years, by the time we get to March the crispness of cold air is a passing memory. This is a picture of the alpine forest that we hiked through 2 summers ago on our way to the summit of Mt. Tweeto in Colorado. There is a certain smell that an alpine forest emanates when you enter it. As you know, smells are a powerful memory trigger. When we entered that alpine forest and the smell hit me, memories of being in college and bumming around Colorado in the Summer came to me as well as a 9 mile hike that Greg, my Mom, and I went on (Panorama Trail) in Yosemite National Park.If I get the chance to smell that (alpine forest) natural fragrance again, the memory of hiking with our youth (Steven - in black sweat shirt - 4th in line) group and Steven will come to my mind. That smell will remind me of a group of teens and adults who persevered through exhaustion, blisters (some had double digits worth), lack of oxygen, fear, and the constant reminder of why the "Rocky" Mountains have that name to reach a goal, the 13,700ft summit of Mount Tweeto.

I wonder if "smells" came to Paul's mind when he went from place to place, preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and seeing the lost saved. Maybe that's what he had in mind when he wrote the following in 2nd Corinthians 2:

12Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, 13I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-by to them and went on to Macedonia.

14But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 15For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? 17Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.