The Sweetest Scent

Before I moved to Austin, I often drove here to see my family. Sometimes I would tell Ryan and Shawntel to not tell the kids I was coming in so I could surprise them. I would hide my car and then slip into a room. Then the plan was to jump in and surprise them.

But before my plan was executed, they would walk into the house and declare: “Nana’s here! I smell her!” Thankfully, it was because of the usual cologne I wore. They identified my scent. As Nana, that is pleasing to my soul. To know they are drawn to me and enjoy my presence.

And, how about a pie or cookies baking in the oven, or the heavenly aromas of a turkey baking at Thanksgiving? Sweet scents! Can’t you just smell them now?

Then, there was my husband’s scent. I keep a bottle of Abercrombie & Fitch’s “Fierce” cologne in my car, his and my favorite. I often spray a little into the a/c vents. I breathe in that wonderful aroma and precious thoughts enthrall me. He’s certainly basking in heavenly scents now. And, on this side of heaven, God wants all of us to exude His own sweet aroma to the world.

2 Corinthians 2:14 says this: “But thanks be to God! For through what Christ has done, He has triumphed over us so that now wherever we go He uses us to tell others about the Lord and to spread the Gospel LIKE A SWEET PERFUME.”

I am reminded of how important it is for believers to be the aroma, or the fragrance of Christ. 2 Second Corinthians 2:15-16 says: “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.”

In these verses, the Apostle Paul is powerfully describing Christians as the aroma of Christ on earth. In a very real sense, believers make Christ present on earth, as He is in them. Everywhere they travel, they symbolically ‘give off the smell’ of the Savior to fellow Christians and unbelievers alike. It is an aroma that is received differently depending on one’s eternal status, being a believer or not.

So I can’t help but ask? Do I smell like Christ? Do you smell like the Savior? When both believers and unbelievers encounter us daily, do we give off an aroma that points them to our Savior, a fragrance that reminds them of the beauty of Christ? And when they do smell us, does our scent reveal who we really are?

Just like my scent made me easily identifiable to my grandsons and my husband’s scent identifiable to me and that Thanksgiving turkey, does our scent make us easily identifiable as followers of Christ in a dark and dying world?

If not, shouldn’t we become scented with our Lord’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control aka that beautiful scent of the Fruit of the Spirit? (Galatians 5:22-23). I want to apply that scent daily. How about you?