Of Incense, Perfume and Hearts (again!)

Someone got me  a very beautiful original bracelet. It had one bead full of some sort of a lavender mixture that as I was told was something in the past used instead of perfume! Because of that I started to remember all the beautiful smells and perfumes... Incense! It fascinates me! On a soft but continually burning coal it melts to the most beautiful smelling smoke you can ever smell. The smell of  gardenia, jasmine, myrrh,... sweet flowers, will remind you of places, people, incidents that made you happy!With all that,  the verse that we are to be the fragrance of Christ came to mind! The most beautiful Christ! How can I be His fragrance... all my lavender, all my jasmine, all what I would wear would not be enough... I started to wonder and my brain goes to a different topic, a song, "A Man on Fire"  and I know I am on fire, my heart burns but not a flagrant, overwhelming fire, it burns something constant, something flameless, but something hot! Hot in love, in pain, in joy, in repentance... (sometimes hot in impatience, in disobedience...)
And suddenly it made sense! Let my prayer burn like incense before you Lord said David! Let the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you! I knew! I knew this burning heart is what will make a beautiful altar! There I will  lay my incense: my prayer, my praise, my supplication, my words, my emotions, my stories, my self... On a heart that was set on the fire by the Burning Bush... I will not put nasty stuff to burn, I will not dwell on ugly thoughts, I will not deliver hate, those I will throw before they get to my heart! I will be a beautiful fragrance of Christ because it is from Him that all loveliness comes and it is from there that I will get my incense... and on my heart they will burn because I am on fire!

Heart wholes

I heard the story of The Parable of the Sower at Church today and as usual the explanation that our hearts should be a good soil for the Word to be planted in it. But today I realized something! A very simple step in planting I so did automatically today made me stop! We all know that you have to put soil and then make a whole and bury the seed in it and slightly cover it and then water it and after a period of waiting you get so tiny things coming out that make you so happy! And then my brain drew the parallel with the parable! If I want the Sower to actually plant something, I need to let him have a whole in my heart! And my hurts, my deep cuts in the heart suddenly made sense! He cannot plant without those!  They are not made to stay empty! They will be filled and he will water it and shade it and cover it and take care of it  and it will have roots and flourish and become beautiful and make Him so happy! 
He gives Life! He shines! Source of endless living water! The Seed, the true good seed! We shall never find a better Sower!