Inside: Seeing the Beauty of God Like Never Before: A Devotional From My Time in Quarantine and Sickness

Every detail of the leaves on trees and road signs became crisp. At night the stars came alive in their glorious shimmering brightness.

That was the moment my husband became a boy again, if only for a moment.

When we first met, my then-boyfriend had been going without glasses for some time. While on a road trip, I noticed he couldn’t see the road signs until right when we passed them. I suggested to him that this was not normal or safe.

At my prodding, he finally went to the eye doctor thus revealing how blind he really was.

I think of this story often when I’m tempted to forget the beauty around me.

We often don’t appreciate what’s right in front of us and sometimes we need something or someone outside ourselves to point out the obvious.

I was reminded of this beauty again this past September.

My daughter came down with COVID-19 and despite our best isolation efforts, my whole family contracted the virus.

I’m so thankful all of us only had mild cases ( My son didn’t have any obvious symptoms. I only tested him because the rest of us were positive and the challenge of isolating my six-year-old overwhelmed me.)

However, we did lose our sense of smell and a little taste at some point during our recovery.

All of a sudden, things you knew were supposed to have a scent were devoid of any smell. I couldn’t smell my shampoo, deodorant, or even my dog’s stinky farts. (You would have thought we would have chosen this time to eat whatever food had gone stale in our house, but nope, we still ordered out.)

My son even told me I could serve him whatever vegetables he doesn’t like and he would eat them. (I really should have taken advantage of that.)

But it was the weirdest feeling to not be able to smell anything.

It certainly reminded me of all we use our sense of smell for:

• Avoiding sour/bad food
• Determining if my children needed a bath
• And even the smell of smoke

I knew I had begun to recover my smell when I started smelling food in my fridge that had become rancid…

However, the joy of being able to smell my pecan-flavored coffee, cinnamon oatmeal, and pumpkin spice soap revived my soul after a mandatory sentence of quarantine for no less than 10 days, with my whole family…

Several days after, I found myself thanking God for the smallest gifts.

Funny how, much like my husband when he first got his glasses and felt like he could see again, the joy of being able to smell familiar foods that had been in front of me the whole time, was a reminder of the beauty of God.

Right in front of our noses (pun intended).

So even though I wouldn’t have chosen to have Covid and in fact prayed in earnest for protection for my family, I’m thankful to have survived and lived to tell the story of God’s love through his amazing gift of our senses.

God reminds us of his love from the simplest of gifts:

• The details of tree branches and flowers,
• An immune system strong enough to fight a sickness
• And the gift of smell, both good and bad scents

We all need a reminder to see the gifts of God in front of us every day.

Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens.^[a] He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.

James 1:17 (NLT)

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