Smelling the Honeysuckle

Did you ever find one of these when you were young?

I found this nest and the egg separately the other day and it brought back all these memories of feeling young, summer and pure joy at having found such a treasure.

I wonder if it was just me or if there are other people who have found their peace in the things of nature?

When I was a girl, I found pure joy in these things, a nest and a bird's egg. Sunny flowers would make me smile, the summer sun and a water hose were the perfect combination. Who could ask for more?
Somewhere along the line, life got in the way of these simple things. I forgot to smell the flowers, to watch the birds, to feel the rain on my face.
After all, it was just life and it was hard and wasn't going the way I had planned.

I would cry out to God to change things and make it better. 
I would wonder why He didn't hear me. I would dwell even more on all my problems and seek Him harder. Thinking that I was doing something wrong for God to not hear me. I tried many ways to please Him. It all seemed to no avail.
Then one day, someone mentioned the following verses from the New Testament to me and felt they should be taken literally as an anecdote for depression and anxiety.
Let me share them with you.








~ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin,  yet I say to you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ~ 


These words were spoken by Jesus when he walked on this Earth. 

I remember reading a book written about life in Appalachia. I don't recall the name of the book or the author, but I do remember that they mentioned smelling the honeysuckle in the air. At the time I thought, "that's funny, I've never smelled it before. I wonder why?" I even went and intentionally smelled honeysuckle....but no, I just didn't remember ever smelling it before.

So, I began to implement "the Jesus cure for depression" into my life. First, Tim made a greenhouse and I began to grow flowers from seed. My daughter and I made flower beds that we planted all of these in. I bought field guides about birds, butterflies, wildflowers and herbs. I made and put up bird feeders in my yard and I started feeding the hummingbirds. I began to go for walks just for the purpose of searching out new plants and identifying them. I started making new friends through the internet that had the same interests. Slowly I discovered I was noticing things I never had before. Nature.... that had always been there, began to take on new appearances...or so it seemed to me.  The grass was simply greener wherever I looked, trees were so fascinating to me, I  was noticing flowers and herbs that I'd just never seen before. When I would look at these, I would thank God in my heart for creating them. I would think of Him "looking at all that He had made and saying It Was Good." Genesis 1

Then one day, it happened, I smelled the honeysuckle.... it was in the very air around me and what  a heavenly scent it was! It was surely there all along....At that moment I realized that I was getting better. I was healing from the hurts and disappointments that had destroyed my joy. The "Jesus Cure" was working. 

Have you smelled the honeysuckle today?