The Best Smell in Church

I love this. “The best sight is the one blurred by tears” caused my sight to be blurred. So true.

He didn’t smell like cigarettes, but a young man who’s been quite angry with the church for years, a real prodigal son, showed up on the back row last Sunday – my younger brother was delighted, because he’s been working with the missionaries to answer some hard questions, and didn’t think he was going to come to church for quite some time. He was SO happy to be proven wrong.

The young man stayed for Sunday School, where we discussed light and the house of the Lord, and then for a linger-longer, where he spent a good 45 minutes talking with my brother and his friends.

I know intellectually that we are supposed to welcome all to church, but I have a sensitive nose (I can smell things others can’t) and smelling tobacco in church just makes me nauseous so I sort of resent the intrusion of a worldly odor. I have to stay as far away from the person as possible. Once I even smelled it emanating from a women in the temple, which made me feel like there is nowhere I can escape from the world and find peace. (No, it wasn’t just on her clothes, I was quite close to her and it came out of her mouth when she spoke.)

On a more positive note, we have a son who has strayed down worldly paths and gotten tattoos and piercings. He had to give up the piercings when he joined the Navy, but has continued to deface his body with tattoos. However, whenever I see someone at church with those things I think of our son and know what a kind, hardworking, and gentlemanly man he is and project those qualities onto the visitor. You can’t judge a book by its cover and all that.