What is Your Favorite Smell?
Good Morning Friends,
For me smells of moth balls and lavender brings me back to memories of my mother’s mother. Smells of oranges and pipe tobacco bring back memories of my father’s father. Memories of fresh mowed grass brings me back to my childhood. The smell of glue brings me back to my early school days. And the smell of homemade mashed potatoes and cooked steak brings back memories of family at dinner. I think that all of us would agree that smells have the power to vividly bring back memories and images of people and places. Maybe you like the smell of freshly mowed grass or the smell of compressed air before a rainstorm or maybe the smell of your favorite meal or the smell of the holidays that prompt a memory. Smells are everywhere and the beauty is that some give off the scent of God. And moreover God uses us to spread His knowledge everywhere like a sweet smelling perfume. So perhaps the strong but pleasant fragrance we seek is something pleasing to God. Perhaps we seek the sweet smell of success in glorifying God. What is Your Favorite Smell?
Scripture: Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
John 12:3 (NRSV)
but my mind could not rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said farewell to them and went on to Macedonia. But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so may, peddlers of God’s word; but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
2 Corinthians 2:14-17 (NRSV)
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
John 13:1-17 (NRSV)
Message: Our sense of smell is powerful in how it permeates our lives. If you do not want to see something you can close your eyes. If you do not want to hear something you can muffle the sound, but when it comes to smells, there is no way to escape. We are not in control. Eventually we have to breathe. At this time of year it is a good thing. The smell of fall permeates the air. Pumpkin Spice is everywhere and I kind of like it for it reminds me to be thankful. But not all smells are pleasant to everyone. In the today’s scripture we see how smells and actions are associated in the life of Christ and how they can remind us of what we are to be and how others are to experience us as we experience God. Here we sense the fragrance of both the suffering servant washing the feet of the disciples and the anointed oil of the conquering king…Here we realize that nothing can stop the aroma of Christ. Here it becomes clear that smells link to memories and so it is not surprising that God has ordained that worship be filled with pleasing odors and fragrances. Smells can inspire worship and a sense of awe and association. In the Bible these smells are associated with the spice filled oil that anoints the king, the perfume used to cover up the smell of death, the incense used in sacred worship, the soothing aroma of a holy sacrifice and the holy food used in feasts and festivals. In the upper room just before the Passover feast these smells permeated the air. Here we learn that we need to be served by Him so that our smelly feet are cleaned. Here we learn that Christ has set an example for us to wash others feet…to carry His aroma, the fragrance of life, into the world through our thoughts, words and deeds. Friends, our fragrance is proportional to our love. It is affected by the death in us….the death around us. Sin stinks. It is repulsive. As called out believers we are to rejoice in the fall smells even as we anticipate the spring blossoms on the vines exuding a sweet smelling fragrance of victory…the same smell…the very essence of God….love…. permeating and lingering…helping us to remember that success comes to those who obey. Friends, the aroma of Christ is to be in us drawing people to the message of love in scripture manifested through sincere actions and worship year round. So know this, God has a sense of smell and scripture explains that what is pleasing to God is when we demonstrate our knowledge of God and therefore our love of God through Christian actions. Here our life is to smell of success, service, sacrifice and sincerity so that it causes people to think of Jesus. So think about how to acknowledge Christ through actions. Explore how we can be a sweet smelling fragrance of life that calls others to remember Christ. Attract others to the table. Discover how to be as a spice rubbed on a grilled steak. Help others to remember through the senses we have been given what life…what love is really about. This holiday season discover and apply what you have learned so others might taste and see with a power that goes beyond what we see and hear but also wakes us up to what we smell that reminds us of God’s love in us.
Pray the next time we smell fresh baked cookies, flowers, popcorn and pleasing perfume…the next time we smell a good home cooked meal we think of Christ. Pray
that we spread the aroma of Christ everywhere we go. Pray that we be a sweet smell that leads others to a better life. Pray that we are confident about Christ’s identity in us. Pray that our unique aroma be pleasing to God. Pray that our demeanor has a pleasing fragrance for the world. Pray that we sense God through His word and the Holy Spirit. Pray that we sniff out what others have to share, first holding our tongues while we reflecting on the smell of what they say. Pray that when we do speak, when we do act, we speak and act in a redemptive way that smells of victory. Pray we feel the need to run away from the smell of sin and into the fragrant forgiveness of Christ’s good company.
Pray that the smell of life…the success, service, sacrifice and sincerity of the aroma of Christ permeate our lives. Pray our actions not smell of fear but of love. Pray our actions smell of life not death. Pray we are anointed with the herbs and oils of the Holy Spirit so we might smell of God.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 