Smelling the Onion

Smelling the Onion

February 5, 2015

Micahs friend Bella Sale came over to play today.  I was using their play time to be productive and began making dinner.  When I got an onion out of the pantry Bella said…ohh I don’t like those they don’t smell good.  Then she asked to smell it.  I hadn’t began to peel it yet so it didn’t have an odor. 

She came back and said, can I smell it.  When I put it to her nose she looked puzzled…”hum… smells like nothing”, she said.

Micah was walking by putting his shoes on and saw the onion and started making a squinty eyed face, and warned Bella not to get to close or she’d get tears in her eyes.

They went outside and I began to peel the layers away, first the crunchy dead, darkened layer, then the next was a little more moist then the finial top layer revealed a new color and a really strong aroma.

Bella had experienced an onion smell before she knew what it should have smelled like, but this onion was new, hadn’t been opened, was just taken from our basket in the dark pantry. 

I love the smell of garlic and onions sautéing in a pan.

Lord may you keep me alive, peel back my layers, may others always see you, smell you, know what to expect when they see me.  Pair me with friends that will enhance who you’ve created me to be. Just like garlic and onion together.  Give my kids great friends that point them to you.

Continue to remove the dead layers.  Strip off the outer layer. 

The outer layer of an onion is there for its protection.  But the onion cant be eaten and used with that layer still on it.  Some parts of the outer layer are tricky to remove, can crumble apart and make a mess, (I actually always peel my onion over the trashcan)  The outer layer has a purpose but if we never get rid of the covering we will never get to the best part.  Don’t remain in hiding, even though it may feel like the safest place to be.  Allow yourself to be vulnerable to the opinions of others, even if they end up not liking what you are.

There is always something new to see and learn about God each new layer is amazing there is nothing he cannot do, hasn’t already done.  NO one can ever possibly know or understand everything there is to know about God.  He is deep he is wide, he covers, he uncovers, reveals, breathes life, and gives wisdom.  Oh how I long to know him more. 

Job 26

“How you have helped the powerless!

    How you have saved the arm that is feeble!

3 

What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!

    And what great insight you have displayed!

4 

Who has helped you utter these words?

    And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?

5 

“The dead are in deep anguish,

    those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

6 

The realm of the dead is naked before God;

    Destruction[a] lies uncovered.

7 

He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;

    he suspends the earth over nothing.

8 

He wraps up the waters in his clouds,

    yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.

9 

He covers the face of the full moon,

    spreading his clouds over it.

10 

He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters

    for a boundary between light and darkness.

11 

The pillars of the heavens quake,

    aghast at his rebuke.

12 

By his power he churned up the sea;

    by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces.

13 

By his breath the skies became fair;

    his hand pierced the gliding serpent.

14 

And these are but the outer fringe of his works;

    how faint the whisper we hear of him!

    Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”

God is just getting started with me!