It's miracle time!

So as you may or may not know for most of my life I haven't had a sense of smell. At two different times when I was five years old I broke my nose. I also had surgery on it twice. My nose grew back wrong and I lost my sense of smell slowly over time. Around my 8th grade year I could really only smell gasoline and permanent markers. At one point my mom got really worried about this and I went back to my nose doctor and we tried all sorts of different things like using steroid nasal spray. But nothing worked. So since then I have been short one of my five senses. This past Sunday after church somehow the topic of me not being able to smell came up when I was chating with Jess, Tom, and Sophie. Tom hadn't heard my little story before so I quickly told him all of the details. He asked if anyone had ever prayed for me before for healing. I told him that I didn't think that anyone ever had and I hadn't really ever thought to ask for it. So he said we should pray right then....so we did.

Then...after we prayed Tom had a box of Peppermint Altoids at the table and I put it up to my nose and...... I COULD SMELL IT!!!! It was the craziest thing to realize that I had been healed really and truly. Jess and Sophie started yelling and screaming and I just sat there feeling overwhelmed. I was just blown away. I had almost told Tom he didn't need to pray for me because it wasn't that big of a deal...I was fine without a sense of smell...it really didn't matter. I think this was my reason for not ever praying before...it just didn't matter. Also, it was my interesting fact that I could always pull out and I think in a prideful way I didn't want to give it up. Then as Tom started praying I thought...'why not just say yes to the Lord?' I felt like he was going to heal me and then I realized that it really is one of the most well known things about me and how much I would be able to tell people about the Lord's healing and give testimony to him. So in my heart I said yes to the Lord's healing and he did it. Miraculously. Matt called it a creative miracle. So after crying for awhile and thanking the Lord....I started to get more excited. I smelled a few more things at church like garlic (super stong...took me off guard)...and some teas (which all smelled different...to my amazement!). Then when I got home I'm pretty sure that I smelled every smellable thing in my house. It was so much fun and so surprising. So many things smelled different than I expected them to. I discovered that I don't really like my perfume or deoderant haha. But with everything I smelled I thought of the Lord.

The last few days I have been experiencing this miracle personally in everything I do. I can't go very long without thinking about the Lord because I just have to smell something and I feel amazed. I feel so loved by the Lord. He is a God who gives good gifts. But I've also been feeling like this is something that can so easily be given back to him...for his glory. I've had the chance to tell quite a few people about the Lord's miraculous work in my life. And I expect to have a chance to talk to those at work soon. Most of the people I work with know I don't have a sense of smell already and I have been praying for more evangelistic opportunites at work. I'm excited to tell them that God healed me. I've been praying that as I tell people this story that they will see the Lord's personality behind it. That they will see that he is a loving, good, generous God. I pray that they want to get to know this God who heals. I feel like the Lord and I have just been laughing about this whole thing. I thought I was just fine but he brought me a gift that would bless me and that would point others to him. He's just too good to me. The Lord has also reminded me that he wants to gives good gifts...he wants to bring healing...he is a God of restoration...but sometimes we just have to ask. To be willing to accept what he gives. I'm excited to see what God will do!

Praise the Lord! He is good!