March 28-A Sweet Smell

Happy Thursday. Do you love good smells? I adore Bath and Body Works even though in my brain I know it is too expensive and I’m just paying for the smell, but I love the smell! And my emotional self loves everything in the store from the car smell to the room smell to the soap smell to the lotion smell! I have the plug ins all over my house and the clip on in my car—I’m ridiculous. But smell is a long lasting memory. When we close our eyes and remember, we can smell grandma’s cookies before we can taste or see them, right? I remember the smell of my grandpa’s pipe even though I don’t remember much else about him. 

When the Apostle Paul was writing his second letter to the Corinthians, he spoke of the aroma, the smell, of a Christian. He refers to us as being in the Christ’s procession and how Jesus uses us to spread the knowledge—the aroma—of Him. He says that to those who know Christ, the aroma is that of a sweet perfume but to those who do not, it smells like death. 

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭2:14-16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Have you ever wondered why some people just instantly don’t like you? No matter what you might say or do, there really isn’t anything you can do to change their dislike? It very well could be that you smell of death to them. We have heard “All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it...”

‭John‬ ‭3:20‬ ‭NLT‬‬, but to think that we smell bad to the nonbeliever is almost hard to think about because we are a people who like to be liked. Yet, by our very smell, we we are not tolerated well by the unbelievers. The only way to get past that is to develop a relationship with the person where they can believe that you care about them and by extension, they can come to believe that Jesus cares about them. Our real purpose—sharing our faith and showing others Jesus. But the smell is sometimes a rough hurdle to overcome. And we certainly don’t overcome it with debate, but with caring, with the absolute love of Jesus. 

Jesus Messiah, thank you for leading us in the triumphal procession. Help us Lord to always speak of you with sincerity, love and honesty. We have been pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed, because we know that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. We praise you and worship you this day for we are your people and we ask for your protection and blessing as we seek to follow you in love. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, God only wise, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen and amen. 

Love you dear one,

Pam