Patty and I changed our plans a bit coming back from Utah. We decided to drive from St. George to Tremonton on the Idaho/Utah border after visiting our friend on Thursday. Friday, Bob picked me up there and saved Patty about 250 miles of backtracking to get to her home in Montana.
Tremonton was hosting a county fair and rodeo and the few motels were full. We ended up at the Motel 6. The last Motel 6 I stayed in had been remodeled. Unfortunately, that Motel 6 was not the one in Tremonton. It was clean (thankfully), had wood floors (thankfully), but the odor was obnoxious. Not sure about the source of it either … perhaps what they used to keep it clean? It overcame everything else about the room.
Odors can overpower almost everything, and an odor detected decades later will immediately flash to the memory of that initial encounter.
One of the most precious stories in the Gospels is the anointing of Jesus by Mary of Bethany just before His crucifixion. It is found in the opening verses of John 12. “Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” [John 12:3 NIV]
“The house was filled with the fragrance” of the expensive perfume. I wonder how long that fragrance lingered in Martha’s house? I wonder how long it lingered in Mary’s hair? If they ever encountered it again, did they flashback to those last days before His death and resurrection?
Thank you, God, for the fragrance of Christ in our lives. Amen
