Shirt Smelling Thing

My son always wore cologne.  It drove 10-year-old Katie nuts when he’d shower before her in their shared bathroom because he’d “stink up the whole bathroom” with his cologne.  He couldn’t help it.  He liked when things smelled good.  He loved to smell fresh, clean laundry.  If he’d come inside for a drink and I was cooking dinner, he breath in deeply and say, “Smells good, Mommy.”  He even noticed when I was clean and he’d always say, “Mom, you take shower?” and then he’d follow by a hug and “You smell good.”   He had a way of making me feel like the most exquisite cook and the most adored mother possible.  I'm going to miss that about him.

Those of you who have lost a loved one or even those of you who are far away from a loved one such as a military spouse, you know what I’m talking about when I say I did the whole “smelling the shirt thing”….and it backfired…I had grabbed a folded, smelly white t-shirt out of his top drawer…and frankly, it ruined the moment.  It did make me laugh though because if he’d seen me do that he would have laughed at me with his beautiful, but devious laugh.  And he would have brought it up months after the fact and laughed at me again.  It felt good to laugh.

I’m sure Tim would agree that yesterday was the hardest day so far for the both of us.  We had to pick out his casket, stone and place of rest.  How do you even pick that stuff?  I cringed when I heard the words come out of my mouth, “I like that one over there (referring to the black casket).” Ugh.  No, I do not “like” any of them.  I actually HATE them all.  Yet in the midst of all that, notes from you guys flowed in on my phone.  Prayer was evident.  I had moments of peace even in the midst of a storm.

Funny story-- I had posted a status on Facebook something to the effect of “Please pray I don’t break out into my ugly cry at his funeral Live on Sermonaudio.com this coming Saturday.” And my sweet friend wrote a comment, “You can’t do anything ugly.”  The timing in which the comment came across my iPhone could not have been more perfect. It made me laugh right out loud right in the funeral home.  I showed it to Tim and he smiled as well. 

Ephesians 5:2 says, “Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.”

 It is amazing how all of you are truly walking in love for our family. Your gifts, delicious meals and kind notes are your offerings.  Some of you are sacrificing resources and your time to be there for us.  These are such sweet-smelling fragrances.  The whole smelling the shirt thing didn’t work out so well as far as comfort, but we are feeling Christ’s love through all of your gestures.  Thank you so much.