Joe was frustrated! He had been calling Haley for the last hour to get out of bed, and she was still asleep! Joe grabbed his crutches and went to Haley’s room and knocked on the door. There was no answer, so Joe pushed open the door and went into the room. Haley was still sound asleep in her bed with the covers pulled over her head! Joe poked her in the shoulder with one of his crutches and Haley groaned and began to wake up.
Joe said, “Haley, did you forget that today is the first day of Nature Camp? The kids from our Church will be coming to our farm on the Church bus and you need to be ready to meet them and teach them!” Haley answered, “Of course I remember the kids are coming today. How long until they get here?” Joe said, “They should be here in less than 10 minutes! I have been trying to wake you up for over an hour!”
Haley screamed, “My hair! I need time to fix my hair! Last night I was laying on the deck looking at the stars. It was so awesome that I forgot that I had been eating a popsicle and it melted and got into my hair!” Joe looked at Haley’s hair and could hardly keep from laughing! Her hair was all sticky and was sticking out in every direction! The popsicle stick was still tangled up in her hair!
Joe just shook his head and went outside to wait for the bus. About 4 minutes later the bus turned off the road and came down their driveway. Haley screamed and came running out of the house! She had gotten dressed and begun to brush her teeth, but there were still gobs of toothpaste around her mouth and her hair was still a mess! Haley grabbed the garden hose and blasted her head with water until it was completely soaked! Haley turned off the hose and shook her head. Joe stared at her in amazement! The toothpaste was gone, her hair was now straight, but still tangled, the popsicle stick was still in her hair, and now her clean clothes were soaking wet!
Haley jumped up the bus steps so that she could welcome the kids, but she missed the top step and tripped! She fell into the big box that held their lunches! When Haley stood up, her wet hair and her clean wet shirt were covered with peanut butter and jelly! A plastic bottle rolled out of the box and started to roll out of the bus, but Haley grabbed it to save it! Unfortunately, she grabbed it too hard, and it burst open, and a huge glob of honey hit Haley in the face and ran down her neck and into her shirt!
Haley was a mess, but she was not going to let a few small problems stop her from doing her job, so she welcomed the kids to nature camp at Medford Forest. She led the kids off the bus and took them on a hike to show them the forest. Just as they entered the forest, Haley’s pet raccoon, named Daniel, came running up to the group. All the kids loved Daniel and they all wanted to hold him and play with him, but Daniel had other ideas! He could smell all the sweet smells coming from Haley’s head, neck, and shirt, and he wanted a snack!
Daniel left the other kids and ran over to Haley. He used his claws to grab onto Haley’s clothes and he climbed up to her head and began to pull peanut butter and jelly out of her hair to eat! Haley screamed and tried to push Daniel off her head, but he was determined, so he held on tightly and kept eating! Now Haley’s hair was a real mess! It was sticking out in every direction; she had a raccoon on her head having a snack and then there was another problem!
Swarms of flies appeared! They were also attracted by the sweet smells coming from Haley’s hair! There were normal house flies, larger deer flies, and very large horse flies, and mosquitoes! The larger flies bit Haley and the mosquitoes did too! So now Haley had a raccoon on her head, as well as swarms of biting flies and mosquitoes! It was too much for Haley! She screamed as loud as she could and began running out of the woods, back to the farmhouse. The children laughed as hard as they could and ran after Haley back to the farmhouse.
Joe heard them coming and could not believe his eyes! He just shook his head and turned on the garden hose. Joe thoroughly washed Haley’s hair with that cold water! Haley screamed and danced around, but Joe kept the water on her until her hair and shirt were clean!
After all the excitement was over, Joe had all the kids sit down and eat some snacks that he had prepared for them. While they were eating Joe told them that the Nature Camp had two purposes: they would learn more about nature and they would learn more about God from studying nature.
Joe told the group that many animals and insects in nature are attracted to sweet smells. Animals like Daniel the raccoon love to eat sweet things, and it was fortunate that there were no bears in the area because bears also love sweet things. Insects like flies and mosquitoes are also attracted to sweet smells and will swarm around and bite any person who smells sweet. So, if you are going to be in the forest, it is a good idea not to wear any perfume or sweet-smelling lotions or makeup. If you have clean skin and hair with no fancy smells, you will have a more enjoyable time in the forest!
The same principle applies to living the Christian life. If a Christian tries to go through this life and be ‘sweet-smelling’ to the world around them, they will invite a lot of trouble to come into their life.
People do many things to try to be ‘sweet-smelling’ to the world, some of them are:
- Using bad language like the rest of the world,
- Being violent and picking fights like the rest of the world,
- Being disrespectful to parents and teachers like the rest of the world,
- Being dishonest like the rest of the world,
- Believing that nothing is wrong, and that everything is acceptable if you want it,
- Believing that there is another way to get to heaven without accepting Jesus as their Savior,
These are just a few of the ways that Christians might try to be ‘sweet-smelling’ to the world, there are many more. Jesus says that His followers need to live a different kind of life.
In the Bible in Ephesians 5:1-14 it says:
Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are His dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered Himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes – these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey Him. Don’t participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible.
Joe finished by telling the kids, “Remember, if you try to make yourself attractive to the world, you will end up with a lot of problems, just like Haley ended up with a lot of problems when she made herself attractive to the animals and insects! Live your life to please God!”