"Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary, use words." Saint Francis of Assisi

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Six Senses

God is pretty cool.  The senses that He gave us are pretty incredible if you think about it  

I did a little research about our senses.  Most people think there are 5.  Or if there is a sixth one it has to do with seeing dead people

Smell, taste, touch, hearing and sight.  But there is another one that has to deal with the inner ear and how it senses our body's orientation in space.  

Like I said.....cool. 

Why in the world am I sharing all of that here today?

Last week I got to see how our senses triggered some good memories. 

If you've followed our blog for any length of time then you know that my grandmother passed away 4 days after our family got back to the states in September.  We called her Mammy.  You can read about that here.

It was an incredible blessing for us to get to see her one more time.  To hold her hand, to kiss her, to hug her and to let our kids be with her before she died. Them being with her is something I will never forget and I'm sure they won't either.  My family feels like she literally held on just long enough for us to get back to the states before she said goodbye and went to be with the Lord.  Amazing blessing for all of us.  

When it was time to leave the states and come back home, my mom told Benay that she could take some of Mammy's clothes back to a person who might need them in Brazil.  Benay picked out a few things to bring back, and was looking at them last week.

Here is where the senses come in.  

Garrett held the clothes, smelled them, said they smelled like Mammy and asked if Benay and Bronwyn could make him a pillow out of it.  

Later I came into the den and Bronwyn was holding the clothes up to her nose, breathing deeply and smiling.  She then began to tear up.  

The next day Carys came into the room and excitedly announced that she found one of Mammy's hairs on the clothes.  Before we knew it the hair had a new home in Carys's room inside of a ziplock bag.  

We are not sad that Mammy is gone.  Sure we would love for her to still be with us but that is our selfish nature talking. We know where she is and we are so happy about that.  She would never trade where she is now to come back and be here.  Heaven is that cool.  Faith. 

Even knowing all of that, we miss her.  

I am amazed at how the senses work.   That a piece of cloth could touch our senses that way and make us feel like, in some way, Mammy is with us.  That's just amazing if you think about it.  

The day after the clothes were pulled out, we were cleaning our room and found a letter from Mammy that she had written to Benay and myself one Christmas after we moved to Brasil. Coincidence?  I don't believe in them. 

I think that maybe one of God's purposes for the senses is to use them to do what they did for us and for our kids last week.  It's like He just overloaded our senses with Mammy and brought her into our house for a little bit and we thank Him for that.   

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