OUTDOOR TRUTHS: The Smell

By Gary Miller

As of this weekend, deer season is officially open in every state. I already feel like I’m behind because I have yet to go. I hope to change that tomorrow. I’ll hunt but not because I have located a good buck, but because I just need to sit with my thoughts in a tree stand – surrounded by those things that are trustworthy and bring a sense of certainty to me. Don’t get me wrong, my head will be on a swivel, looking for a rack of antlers moving through the woods. But I am more so looking forward to what’s in the background than I am the subject matter. And the smell. For some reason I have been looking forward to the smell. My mind wonders at the smell. I have shared many times that while we have a description and some characteristics of what heaven might look like; there is no indication in the scriptures of what heaven might smell like. I know, however, it will not come from constructed walls and concrete walkways, but most likely from something as simple as dirt. Yes, maybe dirt. After all that is the smell of home.

We know that animals locate their own by smell. Whether it’s deer or cows, they know their own by the unique smell. You love how your mother smelled. Even now, you love the smell of the one you love. You even love the blanket that you had as a child, and even the one you have now. Because it smelled/smells like home.  Isn’t that strange? And neat? In fact, when that blanket smells funny, you wash it because it needs to smell like home. Why? There is comfort and certainty at home. There is rest at home. There is trust at home.

As people made in the image of God, we have two homes. We have earthly parents and our man-made home, and then we have the place where God took dirt and made our earliest grandparents and our earliest home. I think that’s why I look forward to the smell of the woods. Right now, in all that is going in my life, I need home. I need a bed of dirt and a blanket of dew and God whispering through the trees, that everything is going to be alright. Maybe you too need to go home.

Gary Miller has written Outdoor Truths articles for 22 years. He has also written five books which include compilations of his articles and a father/son devotional. He also speaks at wild-game dinners and men’s events for churches and associations. Stay updated on Outdoor Truths each week by subscribing at Outdoortruths.org. Miller can be reached via email at gary@outdoortruths.org.