WOW! I have been so stinkin’ delinquent the last three days!! No good! The fact of the matter is its midterms and papers and tests abound, not to mention there are a some crazy, yet amazing things happening on the ministry front. Nothing is quite as fantastic as being able to share the Gospel with a hurting kid knowing full and well that their salvation is sure and sins forgiven through the blood of Jesus. Comfort and hope, people… comfort and hope. REGARDLESS, those are not excuses for three days of non-posting! I will do my best to catch up!
A funny thing happened to me on Friday. I needed a grey shirt to wear under my sweater. I was running a tad late so I just grabbed the first grey shirt I could find. I was one that had been sitting on the top shelf of my closet for probably a year- in the back corner ignored by me. I spotted it took it and threw it on before hastily putting on my sweater and running out the door. It didn’t take me too long to realize something was terribly arye. Apparently as my grey shirt sat sadly in the top corner of my super sweet 9x9 walk-in closet, it rested atop my Glad Fresh air freshener, Mountain Breeze scent, if I’m not mistaken. Needless to say, my lowly gray shirt had become a conduit of the odorous fragrance. At first it was kind of pleasant. I smelled a little girly, but certainly not horrific. It is better to smell of a female than to smell of a trash heap, that’s what I always say (that’s a lie, I’ve never said that in my life…). But before long my eyes were a bit watery, my nose kinda stuffed, and a litany of sneezes welled up from my very bowels. Within an hour I was drunk with Mountain Breeze, and sickened by it’s essence. All day people around me commented on my aromaiffic nature. Some sentiments were positive. Things like, “ooh you smell like my grandma’s bathroom” or “is that a new perfume?” Others were less than desirable. Like, “Who’s wearing a dryer sheet?” or “Why does it smell like a 98 year old woman in here?” Needless to say, I wasn’t the only one sickened by my smell.
The whole thing got me thinking, though. The wisest man I know, Norb, used to tell me that it was his goal for people to sniff Jesus on him. That everything he did and said would have the scent of our Savior attached to it. I always thought that was a really cool idea, and something I’ve tried to emulate (but miserably fail, truth be told). And then I thought of my overwhelming aroma on Friday. What kind of smell are we giving off to the world around us? What is the scent that we irradiate to our peers and co-workers? Is it sweet? Is it bitter? Is it kind and compassionate? Or, how often is it a smell that even we are sickened by? Certainly or goal shouldn’t be to merely satisfy the noses of the people around us. Just walk through a store- or a high school hall way- and you’ll catch wiffs of every perfume and flavor of Axe body spray ever made. Some are appealing, others are not. To the person wearing them, however, they must be appealing, lest they hopefully would not have shelled out the $49.95 a bottle of fragrance costs. Just because it smells good to the wearer, does not mean it smells good to the smeller.
That’s why our scent is for the scent Maker. Incense was used heavily in the Bible. In fact, God made His own blend and set it apart as holy-
Ex 30: 34 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Take fragrant spices—gum resin, onycha and galbanum—and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts, 35 and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and sacred. 36 Grind some of it to powder and place it in front of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. 37 Do not make any incense with this formula for yourselves; consider it holy to the LORD. 38 Whoever makes any like it to enjoy its fragrance must be cut off from his people."
After Noah make his post-flood sacrifice, “The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done” (Gen 8:21). We, of course, don’t offer up burnt sacrifices anymore, but Romans 12 tells us, ” Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.” It is our great honor that our lives would be the sweet smell of the Lord- to God and to those around us. 2 Corinthians 2:14-15a, “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.”
Such a powerful picture! Just as I want my scent to be appealing to the people sitting next to me, how much more do I want the sacrifice that is my life to be appealing to my God? And thanks be to Him that through Jesus I smell sweet! It was through the sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God that I have a God-pleasing aroma. And now I have the wonderful task of being sweet incense in a foul-smelling world! May I reek of Jesus in all I think, say, and do.
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