Excuse me...do I Smell?

At church on Sunday I was given a Composition Book and the opportunity to journal as an exercise for Lent. I was a little hesitant because I am not really a journal kinda a girl, but thought it could be the "addition" to my Lenten journey. (I always add something for Lent, because I never really had success in giving up something in the past. And since I have started this practice a number of years ago, I have had much more success and a deeper more meaningful Lent.)

So, I sat Sunday morning with my journal and pen and just began to write...free form, random thoughts flowed onto the page. And I began to write:

Be near. Draw me close.

In that moment of silence an image formed in my mind. I saw God's arms pulling me in to embrace me, I felt those arms holding me tightly, my head resting on his chest. And as I sat there enveloped in the arms of God I took in a deep breath and another phrase flowed onto the page:

May your aroma linger. May I smell of you.

As I sat there, still in the quiet moment I thought about aroma... the smell of chlorine and how when you have been swimming the smell of chlorine stays on your skin, clings to you for awhile and people can smell that you have been swimming. I also thought of my dad on Date Night; how he smelled so good and the scent lingered in the air even after he had left the room. I also thought about how sometimes people have a certain smell and when you are embraced by them their smell lingers on you...

That was what I longed for in that moment:

To smell like God, to know without a doubt I had been embraced in the arms of God, for that scent to linger a while longer!

So now I ask the question...

excuse me do I smell?