The Smell of Rain

This might be a reach for some people to understand, but as the rain fell yesterday, it smelled like a Spring rain. Maybe it is the lightning and thunder which somehow charges the raindrops, maybe it is what is beginning to bud as those first drops began to fall, or maybe it was where this particular rain originated, but the rain which fell yesterday smelled of Spring . . . and, God, it smelled good!

Last week's multiple days of rain did not smell this way, which is probably what caught my attention: This rain smelled of budding flowers and robin's songs; This rain smelled of thawing ground and crocuses emerging; This rain smelled of tree sap rushing up the trunk and garden seeds getting ready for planting.

We are told that the sense of smell is one of the most powerful senses a person has, with the power to conjure up memories and events long forgotten, with the capacity to transform communal behavior, even with the potential to change personality . . . all with a smell which is connected to the database of our brain. As I stood and enjoyed the smell of the first real rain of Spring, it got me to thinking:

What would happen in Iraq if the smell of Grandma's homemade crumb coffee cake was sent drifting over the combatants?

What would be the response of competing Christian traditions if the smell of communion wine and freshly baked unleavened bread filled the rooms where 'conversations' were taking place?

What would building contractors do if the cabs of the bulldozers and earth movers which were ripping the top soil off productive land were filled with the aroma of freshly made biscuits which were baked from the wheat once grown on the site?

What would the presidential candidates do if, in the midst of their jousting, the site of the political debate was filled with the smell of freshly sliced watermelon and warm apple pies? (That is putting a lot of weight on the capacity of apple pie and watermelon to transform behaviors, isn't it?)

Well, you get the picture. There is nothing like the smell of that first Spring rain, for in this farmer's heart, it means the smell of freshly opened soil for Spring planting can't be far away . . . and that, my friends, is truly a gift of Heaven!

Go out and smell the rain! God is hard at work filling our senses with wonder that our lives would be lived in joy. Receive the gift and thank the Giver.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Don