The Comfort In Familiarity

This is the time of year when, as you stroll through your neighbourhood, a sweet-smelling perfume fills the air. Lilac bushes of a variety of colours and petal shapes display their beauty in people's yards and along the walkways, emitting their distinct, but familiar, comforting fragrance.

This lilac bush has pale pink blossoms that are are cuped, making them appear like tiny tea cups. The blossoms are also double-layered, which contrasts the traditional single-layered purple lilacs.

There is comfort in familiar fragrances, like the cologne your beloved grandfather used to wear, or the talcum powder you used to use on your precious babies, or the fresh home-made bread you make on quiet afternoons, or the turkey you cook in the oven on Christmas day, or the coffee you or your spouse brews first thing in the morning.

But the greatest comfort anyone can experience, especially in the midst of a trial, a struggle, or unrest, comes from reading the welcome and familiar words of the Bible.

"Jesus answered, 'It is written:

"Man does not live on bread alone,

but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."'"

Matthew 4:4 (NIV)

None of us can live on just the things of this world. We live by every word that comes from the mouth of God, and the Bible is God's Word.