Smelling Good

Canon EOS 300

"At the end of the forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had built and let the raven out. This went off and kept flying to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.

"Then Noah let out the dove to see if the waters were receding from the earth. But the dove could not find a place to set its foot and flew back to him in the ark for the waters still covered the surface of the whole earth. So Noah stretched out his hand, took hold of it and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited some more days and again sent the dove out from the ark. This time the dove came back to him in the evening with a fresh olive branch in its beak.

"Then Noah knew the waters had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days and let the dove loose, but it did not return to him any more.

"In the year six hundred and one, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and looked out and saw that the surface of the earth was dry.

"Noah built an altar to Yahweh and, taking some of all the clean animals and all the clean birds, he offered burnt offerings on it. Yahweh smelled the pleasing aroma and said to himself: 'Never again will I curse the earth because of man, even though his heart is set on evil from childhood; never again will I strike down every living creature as I have done.

"'As long as the earth lasts,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night,
shall not cease to be.'"

GENESIS 8:6-13,20-22

"Lord, let my life be a pleasing fragrance to You."

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