A Pleasing Aroma (The Smell of Tecovas)

Warning: This post is silliness itself. Sometimes that has to come out, too! :)

My husband has given me one task today, and I have excitedly waited all afternoon to complete it. There is a story here, and it is my job to tell it; it is here because where else would I put it? Facebook? LOL. 

One thing you should know about my husband is that he never has buyer’s regret (except maybe recently when after a very LONG time in a boot store trying on every single boot in his size, my impatient presence alone was enough to prod him into making a purchase he was unsure about; in all honesty, I enabled his buyer’s remorse because to get him out of the store I told him I would return the boots on my day off the following week if he did not like them after getting home with them. My bad. Really! Because then I had to make the one-and-a-half-hour drive to return them.) Anyhoo . . . fast forward a few weeks minus the new boots he has desperately needed for quite some time.

Fortunately, on his way back from a quick trip to the top end of the state, he recently had to pass through Birmingham and went to buy the boots he had researched and wanted to buy in the first place, a pair of Tecovas. Without my interfering self, he managed to go right to the ones he wanted and get fitted for his size in that impressive store and placed an order for the boot he wanted to be delivered to the house within a few days. 

Today, the boots came, and my one job was to describe the smell for him using my words(because I like words. A lot!). I waited all day thinking once earlier in the day I heard the delivery truck. The dog did too. But nope. Nada. Nothing. So finally I left for Wal-Mart and of course, while I was gone, they came. 

I retrieved them from the porch and took them to the kitchen where I used scissors to carefully cut the tape on the nondescript outside box. A whiff of primo leather wafted out in a puff even though the inner box had yet to be breached, making my nose twitch even more in anticipation, and I carefully took the box and placed it beside me as I prepared for the bliss to come. Reaching down, I gently lifted out the Tecovas boot box that proudly declared the boots had been born in Texas. How appropriate for these long-awaited boots! (He has literally been wearing the same pair of ropers for 27+ years, having re-soled them thrice. This time I put my foot down, pun intended, and told him to do what he knew he needed to do and buy new ones.) 

Made by hand, the box declares. Y’all. This is going to be so good!

I eased back the cover of the boot box containing THE WADE in a rich Russet Ostrich only to find that each boot has been carefully packaged within a plastic bag, meaning that the wonderful assault to my senses was only partial. 

Let the olfaction begin already. My brain is waiting to process the smell.

My olfactory nerves idled anxiously while I unwrapped the plastic wrap from around the right boot. First, I pulled out the cardboard insert that helped protect the shanks in transit. My intial impression is one of disappointment as I smelled the plastic more than the boot at first—almost a chemical, new car kind of smell. 

I gently eased out the paper packing in the toe and lifted it to my nose. Aahhh! There is more of the luxurious leather smell I have been anticipating all week. 

Maybe this is weird, but I just stuck my whole face into the boot opening and inhaled. Hmm.  But then I got distracted by the feel of the boots, and lest you think me weird, let me say the smooth, soft feel of the toe made me pretty happy. The warm russet color is as advertised and the grain is beautiful. The shank of the boot itself is a much darker brown color without texture, making the boot pulls at the top of the shank worked in ostrich even more stunning in contrast. And the inside. Oh. The inside might be my favorite, like butter demanding to be touched. I am pretty sure there is even a serial number in there. 

I might need a pair of these very soon . . . just saying. Be prepared, honey. ;)

Now, back to the smell. I have the left boot still to open. And done! 

Pretty much the same, but now I realize what it is I have done. I have taken my love for the smell of all things leather made from cow hide and tried to transfer it to ostriches. Uhm. I am a cow girl, and while these smell just fabulous and like the luxurious leather they are made from, they are not the leather smell my brain has been anticipating. My mistake. Don’t hold it against Tecovas. The boots are exactly as advertised in all their fabulousness. [And update: after a day or two, the plastic smell of packing really did wear off and the scent of the leather was much more fabulous.]

I am taking a picture now of the boots to include with this post, and please don’t miss my dog in the left of the picture smelling the box, too, trying to get closer to the smell. [We being weird together. Don’t judge us.] 

The boots smell like, well, like boots. I imagine that after a day or so being freed from the harsh-smelling plastic that once imprisoned them for who knows how long they will smell even more like the beautiful, velvety soft ostrich leather that they are made from, and I just might be found (on days they get left at home with me as rare as that may be) with my nose pressed close to analyze the glorious smell of ostrich leather on these boots I will probably see on my husband’s feet for the rest of his life according to him. 

Interesting.

Now, for the real application that really matters, brief as it may be. As my husband wears these boots to preach in, to work in, to do life in, I know him, and he will be walking “in love” as he wears them. Like Christ, who has called him to serve, he loves people and takes his job as a shepherd very seriously, loving people”as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us.” He will day by day offer himself a living sacrifice “to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Eph. 5:2; Rom. 12:1). Smell matters because we are the smell of Christ to a lost and dying world. We are to be fragrant as we represent Him to people who desperately need His love and the salvation Christ offers.