FRAGRANCE

By Barbara Chadwick

 

 

I opened the window the other day and said, “Oh, it smells like rain!”  I saw the rain across the valley and soon it came across to our house.  The pine and aspen trees were washed clean. Dust was settled on the road and dirt was washed off the car. The fragrance it left behind was sweet and clean.

Fragrance is one of the most acute senses in the human body.  I remember being in the canned foods section of a grocery store when I smelled an awful smell. When I went around the corner I realized it came from this man who was standing there. It was hard not to react. By contrast, I passed a woman in the frozen food section and delighted in her perfume.

We can recall particular smells that remind us of home and loved ones.  Audrey, (our daughter) called one day from England where they were stationed at RAF Lakenheath. She said she was so homesick she could even smell my perfume!

The Bible says our prayers are a fragrant aroma to God.  David Schrock says, “We do not come before God in our own name. On our own, our works are an aroma of death and dung before God. But in Christ, our prayers are a pleasing scent to God. He delights for you and I to come and speak with Him, because he ‘smells’ His Son on us.”

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.  2 Corinthians 2:14-16 

Barnes Notes (a Bible commentary) says, “the word ‘aroma’ rendered as ‘sweet savor’ occurs only in the above scripture, Ephesians 5:2 and Philippians 4:18; and is applied to persons or things well-pleasing to God. It properly means good odor, or fragrance… Here it means that the services of Paul and the other ministers of religion were as grateful to God as sweet incense… That is, we are Christ’s sweet savor to God.”

However, since we are not perfect, there are times in our lives when we are truly not a sweet aroma to anyone; times of rebellion or affliction but God does not give up on us.    …being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

Charles Spurgeon said, “Unexercised virtues are like sweet perfumes slumbering in the heart of the flowers. To produce the one desired result, the great Husbandman overrules seemingly diverse and opposite things. Thus He makes both affliction and consolation draw forth the grateful fragrances of faith, love, patience, hope, resignation, joy and the other fair flowers of His garden.”

I pray that wherever we go (even down the grocery aisle!) and through all the things we do, we would leave behind the sweet and clean fragrance of Christ.