Hope

The sweet peas on the hill have been growing so wild lately. I marvel at this land we live in here in California. It just seems so glorious in the spring. There are hills everywhere bright yellow and green and when you turn one corner of the 5south just before I reach my exit I see ocean, hills, sky, and this year especially sweet peas. They are deep purple. For all the beauty of the little wild flower it couldn't compare to the beauty of the fragrance. I noticed today were shorter and pods were beginning to form all over the vine. Six weeks ago the stems were long and although they were beautiful they were not as fragrant. Today I realized the season for sweet peas is almost over and as they die off it is as if they give all they have and it creates the sweetest aroma. The intensity of their fragrance increases in their dying. It reminded me of so many things this morning. You see I was picking my favorite flowers to place on the grave of my some of my favorite people. I know that my grandma's favorite color was purple and my grandpa and I used to pick apples together and flowers as well and it made me happy to think of him as I picked them. I am glad to go to their grave not because it helps me remember them better or stirs up my emotions, but because it helps me remember Him better and I love Him all the more that there is hope at this grave. I love him because this grave site is not final. He rose from the grave to conquer death!
It helps me remember that He offers hope. It reminds me of a certain holiday coming up. You know the one we celebrate by coloring eggs and eating candy that has no connection whatsoever to the true purpose of the resurrection. So I go to the grave. I smell the fragrance. I remember. John 12:3 states, "Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." As we celebrate the resurrection this year my heart is hopeful it can be like Mary. Mary understood the resurrection. She prepared Jesus body for death and it was beautiful. The smell was magnified for it's purpose in death preparation. Just as the sweet peas in one last offering of glory give their everything before they die, her perfume offering was overwhelmingly beautiful as it was her giving of everything she had in this life. I want to know that beautiful fragrance of giving all that encompasses me in this life. I want to be a beautiful fragrance.
II Corinthians 2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.