The Aroma of Axe

It was early in the morning-still dark out. I was enjoying a quiet moment in my prayer chair --a bentwood Amish rocker--offering my morning devotions in the living room. I'm ashamed to admit I don't manage it every day, but the days I do are much more peaceful and purposeful. The earlier I start, the more likely I will succeed, so there I was making a valiant effort at centering--reading, praying, meditating. I was at 2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.

Son#1 emerged from the hall bathroom in a cloud of steam, indicating that all the hot water was now gone. He grumbled his good morning and went downstairs to get ready for jazz band, which practices at 6:30, an hour before school begins. I kept reading...We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair..

We have plans to build his bedroom downstairs--we've sketched out the plan, we've talked with the builder, we're next on his list of construction projects. But there's no bedroom, yet. Just a wide open lower level where noises and smells can waft up the split level entryway into my sacred space. ...persecuted but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed... Suddenly I was afflicted, perplexed, struck down.... in an overwhelming smell of Axe deodorant and body spray. How much can you use at one time? My head hurt, my eyes watered, my devotions ended.

I escaped to my bedroom and realized I had not gotten up early enough--or perhaps I was just in the wrong part of 2 Corinthians. Maybe I should have been reading 2 Corinthians 2:14-15: But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved..

Maybe Son#1 was doing his devotions, too--praying, indeed, spraying. And maybe for him, the aroma of Axe isn't so far from the aroma of Christ; for him, a blessed and fragrant way to greet the dawn and start the day. One can hope. But, I am still getting up earlier or doing devotions after breakfast.