Good morning…
Nosegay. When is the last time you heard the word nosegay? Tickling my attention, this weird word appeared in our recent post God’s Message In My Dream. Often when the “indwelling Divine Guest whose Voice is spoken in the Silence” speaks into my ordinary life, the LORD’s language sounds foreign. “God, what is a nosegay?” I scribble in my journal before copying what I learn.
Nosegay is a homegrown English word from the fifteenth century, wedding “nose,” the protruding thing on our face, and “gay,” bright, cheerful, ornamental. A nosegay is a round, tight ornament of flowers which appeals to our nostrils. This small bunch of fragrant flowers, often presented as a gift, is pulled close to the nose, for long wonderful whiffs, in an attempt to mask any unpleasant odors. With a refreshing aroma, a nosegay sends a message of love to the hand-picked recipient.
“Do you know the meaning of the word nosegay?” I then ask my early morning walking partner. “Yes,” she says. “A nosegay is the bunch of flowers a bride carries at her wedding. I think it might be more of a southern word.” Well, I was married over thirty-one years ago and I grew up near Cleveland, Ohio, so no wonder I do not know the word nosegay.
“God, what am I to learn from the nosegay in my dream?” I prayerfully ponder for a few days before I begin to sense God’s answer.
- Secretly hanging a fresh nosegay on my doorframe, God whispers, “You, my dear, are wedded to Me.”
- Many unpleasant “odors” are polluting our world. Anger. Greed. Blaming. Division. Violence. Yet the stench of human nature is not as strong as the gentle aroma of God’s goodness and grace. Children, you belong to God, and you have defeated these enemies. God’s Spirit is in you and is more powerful than the one that is in the world (1 John 4:4, CEV).
- God’s gift of this nosegay requires my effort. Each day I choose which fragrance will fill my nose, my thoughts, my whole being. I can choose to suffocate myself with the stench of the world or I can choose to nurture my nostrils with today’s bouquet of beauty.
- Those who come near to our home will smell the fresh fragrance of God’s living Spirit wafting through the air. The fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23, AMP).
- Breathing in oneness with our Creator, Jesus shows us how to put into practice the protective power of God’s grace-filled nosegay. In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse (2 Corinthians 2:14-16, MSG).
“How we are treated by others matters much less than how we treat others to the fresh fragrance of Christ, each and every day,” nudges the nosegay from my dream.
…Sue…
