How Do You Smell?

2 Corinthians 2:15

Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing.

The sense of smell is one of the most powerful of our senses. For example, the smell of fresh baked bread takes me straight to Grandma Brewer’s kitchen when I was a kid. The bread would come out of the oven, and while it was still warm, Grandma would cut both of us a piece and cover it with butter and strawberry jelly.

“Smell," said Helen Keller, "is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived. The odors of fruits waft me to my southern home, to my childhood frolics in the peach orchard. Other odors, instantaneous and fleeting, cause my heart to dilate joyously or contract with remembered grief. Even as I think of smells, my nose is full of scents that start to awake sweet memories of summers gone and ripening fields far away."

When Paul says our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God, it means something special. Our lives are a fragrant offering to our Heavenly Father, and to those around us. The aroma of Christ can lead sinners home, comfort the wounded, and free captives.

How do you smell today? Is your life lived in such a way that you have the Christ-like fragrance, or does something less desirable emanate from you?

Today’s Readings: Job 41 42; 2 Corinthians 1,2

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