Fragrance

 Over Christmas, the four sons and I set about on our annual Christmas Eve tradition to purchase gifts for Brenda. We wanted to get her some perfume among other things. Talk about clueless. We walked into the perfume section and were overwhelmed with choices. The salesperson asked what type of fragrance she might like. We offered no help looking like calves staring at a new gate. 

She picked out a few bottles and sprayed them on a piece of paper. The first smelled too sweet. We didn't like that one. We tried another. It smelled like my grandmother. Nor did we care for it. Finally, we tried one we all agreed on. Who knew buying perfume could be so complicated. 

The sense of smell is strong. Certain smells can take me back to my childhood. The smell of a Pine tree, homemade biscuits, and the smell of newspaper. I ran paper routes as a youngster.

 The sanctuary at Spring Creek has a distinct smell that whisked me back three decades when I walked in there as pastor. Even people give off odors. I walked by one female student a few days ago who wreaked of strong perfume. The fragrance lingered long after she walked past. The same thing happened recently when I passed by a group of people. The hairs in my nostrils revolted at the repulsive body odor. Somebody in that group left an odor wherever they went. 

I wonder what fragrance we give off spiritually. Do we give off the fragrance of Christ to those around us? Or do we have a foul stench because our actions and attitudes do not reflect Jesus? Our lives are giving a fragrance or an odor. Which one is it. 

If a person sings praise on Sunday and then speaks profanity the rest of the week, that is a foul odor. If a person radiates joy in difficult circumstances, that gives off the fragrance of Christ. The fragrance of Christ is a pleasant aroma to people who need Jesus all around us. This makes Jesus even more attractive. The fragrance of Christ fills the atmosphere when the people of God are kind to the outcasts, when they serve sacrificially without compensation, when they love the most unlovable, and countless other ways. 

Our spiritual odor can turn people away from Jesus. We can repulse them with the sin of hypocrisy. The stench can repulse people away from Jesus. May we live to be the sweet, breathtaking, mesmerizing fragrance of Christ wherever we go.