You Smell Like....

Sometimes I am a pain at work.

Just ask the girls I work with.  I bring on stomach pains of hunger.  It happens regularly when I heat up leftovers made by my gourmet husband for lunch at work and the aroma of creamy feta shrimp, or basil chicken, comes wafting down the hallway.

“Oh, man!” They moan.  “What did he make you this time, and is there any for me?”

I know, I truly know, I am very blessed to have a husband who loves to cook for me.  But I got to thinking about fragrances, smells that we emanate as we go along in life, some that are pleasant like Jimmy’s leftover fajitas, and some that smell more like the rotting onions we sometimes find at the bottom of the pantry closet.

Sometimes I think I smell more like that rotten onion in the bag, than a delicious lunch.  It’s like this. When my grandson, Cade was a baby and staying at my house for the first few weeks of his life, I would cuddle him whenever I could, in the crook of my neck, where I put on my perfume. Inevitably, when mommy, Rachel got him back, she would exclaim, “Oh, he smells like Grandma!”

I like to think that when I hang out with Jesus, or snuggle up against the chest of my heavenly Daddy, some of his wonderful fragrance rubs off on me.  Then when you hang out with me, you may end up feeling refreshed or blessed, though you may not know why.  You may even ask me to share some of what I have, just like a bite of Jimmy’s leftover Thai green curry.

But smells do wear off.  Cade doesn’t smell like me when I haven’t held him for a week.  And I don’t carry God’s fragrance when I haven’t been spending time in his presence. Cade may still smell like a sweet baby when he’s away from Grandma, but I think I don’t spread a very pleasant fragrance when I haven’t been with Jesus.  Instead, you may find yourself sniffing discouragement, malodorous bitterness, or putrid complaining.  Phew! You won’t anytime soon be asking for a taste of that lunch!

So, here’s the deal.  God wants us to spread his fragrance everywhere we go, so people will want a taste and find out how good he is.  And all we have to do to smell like God is to be with him, to spend time with him, talking to him, reading his word, worshiping him. And he smells so good that it’s really a no-brainer when he invites us to have a taste of what he is serving up.  Oh, taste and see that the Lord IS good.  Then go and share your lunch with everyone!

"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. 2 Cor. 2:14-16.