I've always known that scents are one of the most powerful resources in jogging specific memories of past experiences. It's like wherever you are, in whatever situation you're in, the scents around you label themselves with every specific detail of your life at that exact moment, and then they etch themselves forever into your soul for you to discover at later times. This phenomenon led me to experience one of the most nostalgic moments that I've had in a very long time. I happened to be at work, and went to use the restroom, and then went to wash my hands. The soap looked like normal liquid soap that you would see in any bathroom. I started to wash my hands and suddenly, I was flooded with memories of elementary school, before fourth grade (I know this because fourth grade was in a trailer, and we didn't have that kind of soap in there.) It had to be third grade or below. I envisioned my classroom, my desk, the rack of coat hangers on the wall that served as backpack holders, and even the "pod" of classrooms that surrounded mine. And of course, the bathroom, where I washed my hands with the very same brand of soap, fourteen plus years ago.

I feel that as I continue to grow older, I can see how various phases and experiences in my life are touched by God, and how certain aspects of life in their truest forms are really just meant to mirror God's love for us. For instance, my parents and I, and the design of a parent child relationship. And Chris and I, and the design of the groom and the bride, etc. On such a very small, flawed, and unworthy scale...these things that are such giant aspects of our lives, are the imperfect analogy of something so much bigger. Everything is so connected and interwoven that it becomes so very difficult to separate God from what we perceive to be "our" lives, or God from science, or God from anything for that matter. Donald Miller makes a few remarks about things like this because for a while, he 'worked' at this extremely highly intellectual and "Godless" University. He found that arguing with too-intelligent-for-their-own-good individuals was always a mute point as related to the religion of "Christianity" because of the corruption, hypocrisy, and contradictions that go along with this title that is so thrown around in our culture. However, Miller started making a point to substitute the Christian label with "I follow Jesus." History tells us Jesus was real, so intellectuals cannot stop there. I see a huge difference in people that are Christians, and those that follow Jesus. To even make the claim that you follow Jesus is setting your life up to look very different than the lives of lukewarm Christians, and for Jesus followers, our relationships with those around us should reflect (although very imperfectly,) God's character, and the relationships of and between the Trinity. By establishing this difference, it should be absolutely impossible to disregard the complexity of God's purpose and plan for each relationship, situation, and experience in our lives. So I don't know about you, but I follow Jesus.

To end with a quote from D. Miller, "...Sure, there is some data involved, but mostly it is this deep, deep conviction......this idea that life is about this thing, and it really isn't an option for it to be about something else."