Luther Died on This Day - February 18, 1546

The foreground is tornado damage in Joplin, Missouri, 50 miles from us.
I made it translucent to fit Luther's quotation.

When we were children in Moline, we would stop playing when the wind blew in the right direction. Taking in the delightful scent, we said, "The licorice factory. Can you smell it?" There was always moment of elation because we never knew when that would happen.

Two children from the congregation in Midland did the same thing, when they lived next to a field of clover. They called it the bubblegum smell. When the wind blew across the clover, toward their house, they lit up and talked about the aroma.

Those moments seem fewer when we are older, or we remember best those moments from childhood. A good substitute is the delight of grandchildren, and recalling our own children's epiphanies.

Luther seemed to grasp it all, from the unified truth of the Scriptures to the trials and delights of raising children. I wonder if the nominal Lutherans will ever revive him. He is missing from the scene.  The clergy are either slobbering over their Roman Catholic heroes, their incense torches, and their liturgical costumes, or studying the latest way to Fullerize their apostate congregations.