Praising God part 2

The larva that fell from the sky!

Rhododendron

Here a few weeks back I posted Praising God, where I talked about some of my favorite sounds in Creation.  The other day I took my children to Rhododendron Cove south of Lancaster, specifically with the objective of photographing Rhododendron for my One Thousand Flowers project.

As I photographed the beautiful, white-flowered shrub, my children sat down on the moss covered ground and patiently waited for me.  As they sat, a caterpillar fell out of the sky and landed on my son's pants leg.  Actually, I suspect it was a sawfly larva rather than a butterfly caterpillar.  But anyways, I looked up, curious what kind of tree the critter had fallen from.

Above rose a fairly large tree, perhaps 40 feet tall, with toothed, pointy leaves and smooth bark.  Well, there are several different tree species in southern Ohio that fit that description.  The one way to tell for sure was to scratch a twig and smell it.  And when I smelled the scratched twig, I was reminded of one of my favorite smells in Creation, that of Sweet Birch.  Sweet Birch has a very strong wintergreen smell.  I need to research if it is safe to chew on the twigs, because if it tastes like it smells, the flavor would be heavenly.

Out west, my favorite smell was the smell of an approaching rain storm.  In Arizona, as the Creosote bush gets wet it releases a very distinct smell.  The smell is then carried ahead of the storm.  So when one smelled creosote, you knew rain was on the way.  Not only is creosote an appealing smell, it also carried an uplifting message.  While in Ohio we sometimes loathe the rain, especially when it falls everyday for three weeks in a row like it has recently, in Arizona, rain is rejoiced.  The smell of creosote meant something wonderful was about to happen.

What are your favorite smells from Creation?  If you do not have a favorite smell, then you probably need to spend more time in Creation!