"Can You Smell Him"

This true story is so rich in explaining the kind of closeness I desire with God in Jesus Christ.

“Diane had given birth to her daughter Danae after emergency surgery. The small baby was only one pound, 9 ounces and 12 inches long. The doctors told Diane and her husband that the child would most likely not live through the night and if she by some chance did survive she would have major medical conditions suffering much pain.

The husband, David tried to prepare his wife for the death of their child, but Diane would not receive the doctor’s report. She believed that the baby would live and be healthy. Due to the fact Dana’s nervous system was “raw” her parents were unable to hold her. Any touch or caress would only cause more pain and discomfort. So, along with the wait, and the anxiety about her survival was added the unmet need to hold their baby girl. Diane and David prayed that God would stay close to their precious little daughter.

It was two long months before they could hold her in their arms. As her mother believed she left the hospital after four months a healthy child, without the predicted medical problems spoken by the doctors.

When she was five years old Danae and her mother Diane were watching her brother Dustin playing baseball. She was sitting on her mother’s lap, when she began hugging her chest, she asked her mother “Do you smell that?”

Diane began smelling the air and detected that there was an approaching thunderstorm, and she replied, “Yes, it smells like rain.” Danae closed her eyes and asked, “Do you smell that.” Once again her mother responded, “Yes, Danae, it smells like rain.” Danae says, “NO, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest.”

How close have you come to that smell? Have you entered into that most holy place with the Father that you could lay your head on His chest and smell that sweet aroma of His love? Is your relationship with Him so close or worship so real that a sniff of His presence causes you to bow at His feet? Or have you longed for those intimate moments in His presence but are not sure how to get there?

What we need to believe is that God our Father is waiting right now for us to have and intimate fellowship with Him in the throne room. Jesus Christ, who sits at the right hand of the Father, has positioned us there with Him, but we must believe and enter in.

I long for such intimacy with the Father. And I know that it takes time on my face in prayer and worship realizing how close He is and how much He loves being with me. It means spending uninterrupted time getting to know His heart. I also know that I need come to Him as a child naked, vulnerable, and depended. It is in that position, with my hands lifted in surrender, that the Father will take me in His arms and hold me to His chest, and like a nursing baby I will smell the scent of the one who nurtures life into my soul.

Do you smell Him?