Today I took a lunch time walk at work – nothing huge, just a couple of times around the perimeter of our campus. I love mid-day walks, but I have a problem and the problem is: my approved weather-window is very small. Too cold? No walking outside. Too hot? No walking outside. The distance between too cold and too hot is like three degrees. So, that’s the bad news. The good news is: the perfect walking weather in Bend, Oregon is NOW. It’s beautiful. Amazing. Magical.
Today, the trees were heavy with fresh, green leaves and the plants are bursting with blooms. As I passed one showy shrub, alive with buttery-colored blossoms, I was hit with a smell that nearly took my breath away. The aroma instantly triggered a memory and transported me back to childhood summers in the home I grew up in. I stopped and breathed deeply and it all came flooding back: sugar cookies, rolling in the grass, hitting a tennis ball against the garage for hours and hours, telling secrets to my best friend underneath starry skies, stories by a campfire, Nancy Drew and fresh garden tomatoes. All of these pretty snapshots of memories were attached to a lineup of strong emotions. Words connected like pearls on a string: happy, safe, sunny, hopeful, lovely, cared for…loved. All that, from just one whiff of one flower on a pre-summer lunch-hour walk.
I spent the rest of my walk a little wistful for that time in my life. Everything was so easy then, when my future was stuffed full of plans and dreams and every day was a new possibility. Many of those dreams have come true. Other things have taken me by surprise and some have even doubled me over with sorrow. But this walk and this moment, remembering how beautiful life has been, somehow filled me with hope for what life is and can be and will be. Not because everything goes perfectly or will roll smoothly (I know better), but because memory after memory tells me that God has been…so good (I know this even better). Just so incredibly good.
EM Bounds said, “Bread for today is the surest sort of pledge that there will be bread tomorrow.”
It’s everywhere, I tell you. Today, I tasted the bread of His goodness through the wafting fragrance of the blooms of one plant on one walk on one day of spring. His grand design permeates our seasons and struggles in the most important ways. It’s everywhere. If we’re watching and listening (and smelling), He will invade our space and pull our hearts back to His beautiful work in our lives.
Maybe it’s a good day to take a walk and breathe Him in. You never know what you might find.
Looking behind to look ahead,
Bo
Wow Bo what a great reminder of what is truly important! Blessings to you, Steve and your family!!(Grandma!!! 😉 )
This reminds me of why Sara Groves wrote ‘Open My Hands.’ On an unplanned visit to her childhood home, she was struck by the reality of Psalm 84:11 and how God has been faithful to withhold no good thing from her.
**
I believe in a blessing I don’t understand
I’ve seen rain fall on wicked and the just
Rain is no measure of his faithfulness
He withholds no good thing from us
No good thing from us, no good thing from us
I believe in a peace that flows deeper than pain
That broken find healing in love
Pain is no measure of his faithfulness
He withholds no good thing from us
No good thing from us, no good thing from us
I will open my hands, will open my heart
I will open my hands, will open my heart
I am nodding my head an emphatic yes
To all that You have for me
I believe in a fountain that will never dry
Though I’ve thirsted and didn’t have enough
Thirst is no measure of his faithfulness
He withholds no good thing from us
***
No good thing from you, Bo.
“Breathing Grace”, it will be one of my race mantras as God reminded me lately, I AM the air you breathe. Blessings to you and your family
I found myself with tears in my eyes in remembering and feeling the freshness of His unending grace throughout my life. Thank you for inviting us along on your Spring walk!
Your words are beautifully poetic and so true. Isn’t God an amazing creator to allow something as practical as our senses to transport, encourage, heal and inspire us with his presence?
Thank you for bringing us into His presence with you…GBY I love that scent too…
Bo! You… Your work… Your words… Your wisdom… Are such a breath of fresh air!!! I want to live today all over again and do it better because of reading your message today. Reflective and insightful and hopeful and promising, a really wonderful post and a wonderful reminder. Tomorrow, for me, will be different because of you. Because of Jesus. Really stinkin thankful for you Bo. Xo