What's That Smell?

In most places, the season of Spring brings joy to those who, throughout the Winter, anticipated birth of flowers and warm rays of sun shining on any and all freshly grown green.  Spring is a favorite season for a great number of people. 

Alaskans, however, dread Spring. 

Don't misunderstand; we smile at the budding trees and look forward to large, ready-to-play-in fields of green.  But we must first survive the yuck of Spring. 

• Snow, once pure white, turns a repulsive shade of brown. 
• Once helpful, stop-the-slide gravel now launches from rear tires and cracks our windshields. 
• Long dead yet still wet plants smell horrendous. 
• And, to top it all, evidence of effective dog digestion, once covered by snow, now surfaces.  [I'm not sure which is worse.  Is it the puppy poop that no one bothered to retrieve or the neglected and, therefore, lying where it was left, plastic doggie bags (and I don't mean the kind you take as you leave a restaurant)?]

I advise you, if you don't already live here, should you choose to visit this amazing state, books tickets for no earlier than May.  Spring stinks!

But . . .

Summer!  Now that's a whole different story.  Green abounds, birds sing, and neighbors you haven't seen since snow fell in November exit their homes.  Spring smells; yet Summer is a season of new life, fresh air, and renewed friendships.

What season is it in your Ordinary life?

Do birds sing right now or are the Devil's Club (aptly named) leaves still "stinking to high heaven"?  If it's an Alaskan Spring in your life right now, take heart.  Under the wet leaves lie sprouting blades of green.  The dirty snow is melting fast.  Summer is on its way!

The teacher wisely declares in Ecclesiastes. 

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

Unfortunately, however, the teacher does so with exasperation in his voice (pen, I guess). 

When we decide to take our everyday, ordinary lives and offer them to God, we can, without exasperation in our voices or pens, declare that in the beautiful and the stinky times, God is good.

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you:  Take your everyday, ordinary life -- your stinky (or green), dirty (or fresh) life -- and place it before God as an offering."