Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Smell (the sense of smell) (07/29/10)
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TITLE: A Nose For News | Previous Challenge Entry
By Nancy Bucca
07/29/10 -
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It all started one day in the garden of Eden. Adam was outside tending to the cabbages while Eve was trimming the rose bushes that grew alongside the house.
She stuck her nose in the delicious, red flowers and inhaled.
Ah… The sweet aroma filled her senses, pouring energy into every sinew, lifting her on eagle‘s wings, making her feel almost as if - as if she could fly.
The magnificent smell of thrill… of abundance… of life! The smell of forever.
But what was this?
A new smell. A different smell. A faint and mysterious smell. Touching her nose. Enlightening her to the presence of something she had never before experienced.
The roses smelled wonderful, but…
They didn’t satisfy her nose for news.
She followed said nose to the front door, where stood a person dressed as if for Halloween, swathed in a black cape, yellow eyes peering from behind a red ski mask, outstretched hand delivering free samples of a supposedly new and innovative hot sauce.
“Brag-gin’ Dragon, the forbidden food.”
Wait a minute! Hadn’t God warned Adam about this stuff? Hadn’t He said…
Don’t see it?… No. Don’t hear it?… No. Don’t touch it?… Maybe. Don’t eat it?… Most definitely!
Why, of all the rotten tricks!
She must send him packing. Immediately. But…
Her nose detected the hint of a scent, one that she had never smelled before.
It pulled on her nostrils, begging to be inhaled.
Certainly there was no harm in smelling it. Was there?
Don’t take a chance. Turn away. Now! Tell him no!
Oh come on. Just. . . a little. . . whiff. . .
You have to fight it.
Must. . . satisfy. . . curiosity. . .
In the end her nose won out. She sniffed it. At last she had her answer.
Danger. The unmistakable scent of danger. That was what she smelled.
Or was it?
And even if it was dangerous, why was it so alluring?
The wavering “No, thanks” that escaped her lips did little to convince the salesman. From beneath his cloak he produced a small orange flower, flickering with the wind. He touched it to the end of a stick and put the stick to his mouth.
He sucked in and puffed out… a strange cloud of incense… that smelled… not quite right.
The fragrance filled her senses, fogging her brain, weighing her down, confusing her thoughts.
A strange exhaustion took over. She began to get drunk.
On the bittersweet smell of deception.
Reeking of ammonia. Of chloroform. Of formaldehyde.
Whatever happened to those flowers that smelled so nice? They seemed so long ago and far away…
Come on. Fight it! Go to Gethsemane and wrestle this thing to the ground!
Oh thank God! There was Adam, standing right there to protect her, draped in the fragrance of manly cologne.
The smell of power. The smell of authority. The smell of salvation.
The stench of disappointment.
The weed passed first to Eve and then to Adam, clogging their nostrils and dulling their senses.
Filling the air with the stench of rebellion, regret, pollution, sweat shops, poverty, slavery, woe, death.
Guilty conscience won out over bloody nose, there in the garden.
But into the midst of their rank failure God sent a fragrant promise.
The promise of a rose to come.
Bringing with it the sweet smell of sacrificial love exuding from an empty tomb.
The smell of conquest, of victory, of success!
A promise available to all who will open their nostrils and smell the rose of Sharon.
The blood-red rose of Sharon.
The perfect rose of Sharon.
Jesus, the fragrance of abundant life. Eternal life. More-than-a-conqueror life.
Do you have a nose for this wonderful news?
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Congratulations on a great entry.
I also enjoyed the way your story flowed, describing the lovely fragrances of the garden (and all the other aromas of the day)!