Unusual Odor

 

Yesterday, I walked outside of the back door of our house, and I smelled that same unusual smell again.  For the last few days, there has been a smell that I just couldn’t seem to identify.  It wasn’t an unpleasant smell: it was a kind of woodsy fragrance.  I used an old painted metal tank last week to fire a pottery project, and I thought that the burning enamel might have given off an odor, but that wasn’t it.  I smelled the red concrete bricks that I had used to make my home-made kiln, but it wasn’t the bricks.  But early this morning, just after taking my shower, I discovered the source of the smell: it was me!  I used a new cedarwood deodorant that I got last Saturday – right about the time that I started noticing the unusual smell.  Duh!  Hey, do you have trouble with the boss at work?  Are you crossways with your spouse at home?  Do you have trouble with your children, or their teachers at school?  It could be that all of these folk aren’t the problem.  The stink could be you!  Paul admonished the church members at Ephesus in Ephesians 4:2&3, “With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  Hey, work at getting along with others today.  Unity isn’t easy because it involves several people.  But work at unity … work on your end.  You may find that others get along much better with you when you work at getting along with them.

Problems

 

I hand out “Order of Service” sheets at church so that the piano and organ players and pastor Jamie can be informed.  After the service, these papers become trash and accumulate on the front pew at church.  So, last Sunday morning I picked them up and went to the men’s restroom to throw them away.  But the trash can in the men’s restroom was full.  So, I picked up the trash can and carried it into the fellowship hall to empty it into a bigger trash can.  But the big trash can didn’t have a plastic liner in it.  So, I had to go to the kitchen to get a trash bag, but the kitchen was locked.  So, I was holding the papers in one hand, the small trash can in the other hand, and trying to get my keys out of my pocket.  So I put the small trash can down, got the key, opened the door, turned on the light, got the trash can liner, put it in the trash can, turned off the light, emptied the small trash can into the big trash can and, finally, threw away the papers.  Then I went back into the auditorium where I was late for the service.  Oh well … Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might …”  Don’t be weary; finish the job; and do it right.

Box Kite

 

My dad worked at General Grid, which was bought out by American Cyanamid, which was bought out by Alcore, which was bought out by M. C. Gill Company.  When you have a good product, everyone wants in on a piece of the action.  Their product was super-thin, super tough aluminum foil glued into a honeycomb pattern.  The foil is only about 3 thousandths of an inch thick, but when properly fabricated, it can support a man standing on it.  The aluminum honeycomb is used in aircraft wings, ship bulkheads, and roll-up truck doors.  In 1960, as a ten-year-old boy, I was on a kite flying binge.  My brothers and the neighbor boys made and flew kites up on Mr. Cochran’s hill.  I bought several rolls of string and would get my kite out so far that it was almost out of sight.  I would leave it tied to a fence post overnight, but the dew overnight would loosen the tissue paper fabric and down the kite would come.  Which gets me back to my dad’s job.  I convinced him to bring me home some durable foil to make the ultimate box kite.  My aluminum foil kite stayed up for almost four days.  A record for any middle-school boy living on Clayton Road.  Ha, ha!  Hey, but nothing lasts forever.  That is nothing on this old earth.  But when we factor in God and our eternal life, well that’s a different story.  The apostle Peter said in I Peter 1:23, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”  Hey, God’s Word is forever, and God’s promises are forever.  A metal-skinned kite may stay up for a long time, but eternal life is for … well … eternity.  And that’s a REALLY long time.