A Lenten Reflection

My Sugarcake is 5.  She asks the hard questions and she makes comments that can send this mama to the brink of tears from laughing.  She also has a gift for saying things which make me think that she is so much wiser than most adults I know (myself included).

After giving her bedtime hugs and kisses one night this week, she smiled and said, "You smell like church."  I know what she meant, the incense that lingered on my clothes and in my hair.  But in my heart, I felt something deeper.  The smell of church - the aroma of Christ.  That is truly what I want to have!

To exude the aroma of Christ, I have to completely absorb Him.  He has to fill me so completely that there is no where else for Him to go but back out into the world around me.  And as we approach the end of lent and the resurrection of Christ, I can see that I am much more filled of Him than I have ever been before and because of that, I know this lent has been fruitful.  But will His aroma still linger when lent has passed?  My prayer is that it will be so.

And so as I approach this Pascha, I pray that Orthodox Christians everywhere will not only experience the resurrection of Christ, but will also be filled with His aroma.  And I pray that in the weeks and months to come that others will not only be able to see Christ in my actions and hear Christ in my words, but that when I am near they will be able to say, "She smells like church!"

A very blessed Feast to you all!

In love and recovery,

ThereO