Have you seen that video of little kids being blindfolded and told to find their mommas by only touching and smelling a selection of women?  If not take a look here: Momma Experiment.  I have watched this several times and the beauty of it never fails to strike me on many levels.

First, I am struck by how what we feel and smell like can be endearing to someone else while we might cringe at how those same identifiers make us feel.  My youngest will play the drums on my tummy or take handfuls of my front.  Many times I have had to bite my lip from asking her not to do that because it makes me feel ugly.  Because I want our daughters to love their bodies and not be ashamed of who they are I am forced to practice what I preach.  Children seem to have a knack for making adults do that.  Peter had it so right when he said, “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes.  Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” (1 Peter 3:3-4)

Second, I am reminded how powerful our senses are if we focus on them.  My mom and grandmas would always laugh when I would say that I love their smell.  It was not until a chemistry class in junior high did I realize that the smell I associated with one grandma was the scent of mothballs.  When I told her of that discovery she laughed.  Now I do not know that I will ever find the smell of mothballs anything but soothing and special.  Presently I could also take all the bed pillows in my home and tell you whose is whose.  Our girls have also employed their sense of smell when determining whose special rag is whose as they both look the same.

So when I read Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God” I have yet another understanding.  Through my life’s experiences, through His Word, through interactions with others, through my time connecting with My Lord in prayer I can feel confident that, blindfolded, I would be able to find Jesus.  Sure, there are times when I feel as though I cannot find Him but now I realize that my senses have been overwhelmed with other factors: too much multi-tasking, the world’s negativity, my own try at control, and the list goes on.  In the same Psalm above the word Selah appears many times as it does in other Psalms.  Recently I have learned that while it has an uncertain meaning some have interpreted it to mean “pause, and think of that.”  What a beautiful word!  When I pause or selah I can become centered again and open to being still and knowing God even more.

As a child of God, like my own children, I want to know my Father so well that can find Him blindfolded.  Selah.