The Secret of Scents

After posting on Facebook yesterday about how I had nothing to say, inspiration struck this morning. I finished reading an amazing book, Beauty Secrets of the Bible by Ginger Garrett, and the section on scent captured my attention. Here are a few reasons why...

"Smells are processed in the same area of the brain that we process and store emotions and memories."

Immediately, I connected to this. The smell of books transports me to my Grandma's basement where I spent many happy hours sitting at a huge red-benched picnic table with her reliving the past and reading her favorite stories.

The smells of Christmas send me back to Berlin, Germany where I can see Kurfurstendamm's twinkling Christmas market and feel the chilly air and remember one of the happiest times of my teen years.

Ginger goes on to talk about God's wisdom with scent...

"God gave His people directions on incorporating scent into their spiritual lives."

"When you walked into the ancient temple, you were immediately transported by the scent of the perfume to another place, a holy space. Perfume set the mood for worship and intimacy."

"The anointing oil was to be made from myrrh, cinnamon, cane, cassia, and olive oil. I imagine that the scent smelled very much like a scent we would associate with Christmas."

I LOVE that! And since scents affect my soul like music, a plan began to form in my brain. I packed up my kiddos and off we went to a favorite store: Yankee Candle.

We spent a fun hour smelling every scent there, and I put together three of my favorites for something extra special.

At home, I assembled my sweet-smelling treasures on a simple, dark candle plate and put it on my dresser, along with a hymn book.

I lit the candles and let their mingled scents transport me to a place of worship. As the heated air carried my prayers skyward, the candles' rich, beautiful scents carried me to a new experience with God, something I'd never thought to do before.

It was lovely. Refreshing. Rejuvenating. And I can't wait to make these scents part of my worship time every morning.

In case you're wondering, here are my worship scents: cinnamon, cedarwood, and almond.

What about you all? Do you have special scents for special occasions? Or special scents that bring back happy memories?

Whatever your scent story, I hope you'll consider allowing special scents to brighten your day, maybe even deepen your time with the Lord.