A Smile on the Wind

 A Sweet Olive tree, or osmanthus fragrans (literally meaning "flower fragrant"), is a broadleaf, evergreen shrub.

I have had a Sweet Olive tree in my yard almost all my life.  

As a young girl, there was one outside my bedroom window, and I loved to open the windows wide so I could inhale the lovely fragrance.  

Five years after we moved into our house, someone gave me a Sweet Olive tree, and it has grown well.  It produces its sweet-smelling flowers multiple times a year, which always takes me to my childhood home in my mind.

There is an interesting thing about these tiny blossoms, though.  Sometimes you can smell them hundreds of feet away, but you may not smell them in your own backyard.  When Glen, Ellie, and I are out walking, the smell will stop me in my tracks.  I want to breathe in as much of the aroma as possible before taking another step.  The scent calms me, soothes me, and almost always makes me smile. It is a smile on the wind. I find it an excellent example of the Lord to send me a scent to bless my heart, from someone else's yard.

There are times in our lives when something we have done, perhaps without even realizing it, becomes a blessing to someone.  The simplest of these is probably the smile.  Smiling at someone, especially if they don't expect it, can have a profound impact on a person.  Sometimes it can change their whole outlook on the day.  Maybe it encourages them to smile at the next person they encounter.  A smile portrays kindness, cheerfulness, and friendship.  When coming in contact with a person, even briefly, what better thing can we impart to them than kindness, cheerfulness, and friendship?

As we go through our days, we can send the sweetness of our smiles to everyone. May our smiles, like the smell of the Sweet Olive tree, bring smiles to faces and joy to hearts.

For His merciful kindness is great toward us: 

And the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. 

Praise ye the LORD. 

Psalm 117:2

A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: 

Proverbs 15:13

A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: 

and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

Proverbs 18:24

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