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Vieraskieliset / In-english

Blog: Smell of the stable

Vieraskieliset / In-english
19.9.2022 6.00

Juttua muokattu:

27.6. 09:58
2022062709581420220919060000

Text: Lii­sa Lil­va­nen-Pel­ko­nen

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen

One eve­ning I was dri­ving home from work. On­ce a week I need to drive about 50 ki­lo­me­ters to work, and I of­ten lis­ten to au­dio books on my way. I was al­re­a­dy a bit ti­red. For some re­a­son I wi­ped my cheek with my glove and was rou­sed by the smell. For me it is a good smell, though some pe­op­le might not like it. I had ac­ci­den­tal­ly ta­ken a pair of glo­ves that I usu­al­ly wear while wor­king out­doors and ta­king care of the ani­mals. The glo­ves smel­led of sheep. I simp­ly had to have anot­her sniff.

When I scratch and hug my sheep, I of­ten tell them that they smell so good. I do not know why I like that smell so much. Ma­y­be my ”tas­te” in mat­ters of smell is dif­fe­rent from that of ot­her pe­op­le.

I re­mem­ber from my child­hood one time when I had gone for a walk with my mot­her and sis­ter. I was about four ye­ars old and was pus­hing a kicks­led. My mot­her was pul­ling my sis­ter in a plas­tic sled­ge. We went past a farm, and my mot­her was bot­he­red by the smell. I was surp­ri­sed be­cau­se I found the smell very good.

I have so­me­ti­mes been a bit as­ha­med to say that I feel good when our neigh­bor spre­ads cat­t­le ma­nu­re on the fields, it is spring, and I am at home. Ot­her pe­op­le, ho­we­ver, see not­hing en­jo­yab­le in that. I gu­ess no smell is good or bad in it­self. Smel­ls are al­wa­ys as­so­ci­a­ted with things that de­fi­ne their qu­a­li­ty.

I re­mem­be­red this while dri­ving home that eve­ning, and I al­so re­mem­be­red the re­fe­ren­ce to the smell of the stab­le. We can ”smell” the stab­le in anot­her be­lie­ver, even though we do not yet know that they are be­lie­ving. That ”smell” helps us iden­ti­fy ot­her be­lie­vers, alt­hough many pe­op­le find it stran­ge and bad, even des­pi­cab­le. Alt­hough this ”smell” is sym­bo­lic, it is real in the sen­se that Je­sus was born in mo­dest con­di­ti­ons in a stab­le. That is where the sa­ying co­mes from.

Alt­hough pe­op­le of this world so­me­ti­mes des­pi­se be­lie­vers, it feels good and com­for­ting to unex­pec­ted­ly de­tect the smell of the stab­le in an unk­nown per­son. It suf­fi­ces to exc­han­ge a few words, if even that, to re­a­li­ze that we have the same faith and un­ders­tan­ding.

14.10.2024

Herra itse kulkee sinun edelläsi. Hän on sinun kanssasi, hän ei jätä sinua yksin eikä hylkää sinua. Älä lannistu, älä pelkää. 5 Moos. 31:8

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