The Fragrance of the Lord

We carry the fragrance of Christ’s character and love in our lives whether we are conscious of it or not. People recognise the Lord in us as this permeates through our lives. In fact, the more we dwell in the Presence of the Lord the more of His fragrance we exude to others.

Source: PInterest

One morning recently, I was sitting in bed having my daily reading when the most amazing smell of toast wafted up to me from downstairs. My son was obviously making himself a piece of toast for his breakfast, but the smell was so strong and so evocative. In a moment of time I was transported back 38 years to when I worked at the Department of Transport with a lovely team of people. Every morning when we arrived at work we would head off to the little kitchen to make our morning cuppa and there it was; the toaster.  Anyone could use it at any time of the day, but most people used it for ‘a nice piece of toast to start the day off'. The lovely, inviting, warming and welcoming smell of that toaster inviting you down the corridor and into the kitchen to partake of a morning delight still stays with me today. I had not thought about it for such a long time, until this particular morning when that same smell hit my senses again, stirring so many lovely memories of the wonderfully friendly and funny team I worked with. Memories came back of how welcome that tea and toast was on the mornings that my boyfriend (now husband) used to encourage me to drive into Birmingham through the busy city centre traffic, to improve my driving skills ahead of my driving test. I would arrive at the office ‘shaky’ after avoiding goodness knows how many scrapes on the way to work. My lovely colleague would sit me down, knowing that I had driven into work again and head off to the kitchen to make me a lifesaving cuppa and the obligatory `nice piece of toast`. After that I could face the day!

The smell bought it all these wonderful memories back in a nostalgic cloud. How blessed I was to have such nice memories and how blessed we are to have a sense of smell.  Our sense of smell is one of the most evocative senses we have. A single whiff can instantly transport us to other places, other times and instantly conjure up a myriad of memories either good or bad. How many of us have smelled that familiar disinfectant smell and thought of school toilets? Or someone passes you wearing a perfume and you remember a person or a place. In my first job, all the girls wore Estee Lauder Youth Dew. A strong heady perfume that was very fashionable then. I hated it then and I still do now, but how do you tell a whole office of mature women, when you are the ‘junior’ that you can`t stand their perfume? You don’t, you learn to bear it or block it out.

Source: Salt and Light Blog

This all got me thinking about fragrances. 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 (NLT) tells us; `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. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate to such a task as this? It’s an amazing thought to think that we carry the fragrance of the Lord in our lives. Just like if you hug someone who is wearing a strong perfume the smell transfers to you and people can smell the other person's perfume on you, so the Bible says we carry the fragrance of Christ’s character and love in our lives whether we are conscious of it or not. People recognise the Lord in us as this permeates through our lives. In fact, the more we dwell in the Presence of the Lord the more of His fragrance we exude to others.

We also know that this fragrance we carry is not always welcome. To those who are seeking the Lord we are the fragrance of life but to those who do not wish to follow the Lord we appear to be carrying a fragrance they do not like or want to savour, in fact we are like the smell of death. This can be hard for us if we want to fit in with the people we meet every day. Its easy sometimes to want to mask the fragrance, to not let the beauty of the fragrance of the Lord flow from us because we know the people around us don’t appreciate that fragrance.  Paul says in the reading above; ‘who of us is adequate to the task’. To be willing for the fragrance of the Lord to constantly flow out of us means sacrifice. We must take time to sit with the Lord so that His fragrance permeates into our lives and then we must be willing to share that fragrance with people knowing that the fragrance of the Lord will offend as many people as it blesses.

I attended a college course recently and as the course ended I reflected that I had not told many people that I was a Christian. I wondered why that was and I tried to tell myself that it was because I had not had many opportunities, but the truth was I had not really allowed myself to let the fragrance of the Lord flow out freely. I ended the course feeling disappointed that I had not shed the wonderful perfume of God’s love around more, I will not meet those people again and I can now reflect on a missed opportunity which I regret not being more willing to share. It really is a matter of choice, just how much I allow the fragrance to flow from me, but it also needs cultivation. Perfume needs to be applied if a person is to become fragranced. Time must be spent in the Presence of the one who imbibes us with the fragrance (Jesus himself) for us to soak in that fragrance of His Grace, so that every part of our lives is touched by the beauty that is the Lord, in that way sharing the fragrance wherever we go will be a natural thing not contrived.

Its amazing what small things the Lord uses to teach us. Today it was a smell of toast that brought these thoughts and challenges to mind. I`m so grateful that its in the everyday things of life that the Lord speaks to us and brings to us new challenges and new blessings.

Lord today help me to be the fragrance of Christ to the people I meet.

Author: Jan Pearson

May God bless and enrich your life

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