We humans can’t help but react instinctively to a beautiful smell, can we?

In my last post, The Perfect Recipe for Bread, I mentioned how wonderful the smell of freshly baked bread is in your own home. The same is true when you bake a cake, cook a roast, light a scented candle, or when you bring a bouquet of flowers inside: the aroma fills the whole house and gives you a deep sense of pleasure.

You get the same pleasing effect when you take a walk in your neighbourhood and can detect cooking smells emanating from houses as you pass by: here someone’s making a rich stew, over there a spicy curry. Even better is strolling by someone’s garden and being enveloped by the scent of the lilacs or roses growing there.

But what if a beautiful aroma could permeate an even bigger area?

I had that delightful experience for a while when I lived less than a mile away from a cookie factory. When the wind was blowing in the right direction, my entire neighbourhood smelled of freshly baked cookies. (My favourite days were when the factory made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!)

But there’s an even better scent than any baked good or flower. Did you know that Scripture tells us that Christ has a fragrance?

“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. As far as God is concerned there is a sweet, wholesome fragrance in our lives. It is the fragrance of Christ within us, an aroma to both the saved and the unsaved all around us.” (2 Corinthians 2:14-15 TLB)

When we have Christ living inside us, we are able to spread the perfume of His love to those around us:

A kind word or deed from you might be like a sweetly scented bouquet you give to someone who’s having a bad day. The presence of Christ in you might be as calming as the aroma of lavender to someone who’s anxious. The joy of the Lord radiating from you might make someone as happy as if they were smelling freshly baked cookies.

For many, the aroma of Christ’s love will be life-giving, exactly the gentle, beautiful balm they need to soothe their pain. For others, the fragrance of Christ might be like smelling salts, waking them up to the ways they need to amend the direction their lives are taking.

The fragrance of Christ emanating from your generous acts might make people stop and ask about the source of this love, just as surely as someone wants to track down the source of a beautiful scent in a garden and ask what the name of the plant is. This is your opportunity to tell them about the tremendous love our Heavenly Father has for all of us, and to show them how they can get to know God through his Son Jesus.

Believers have an opportunity to spread the fragrance of Christ well beyond their own homes. Spread the news of Christ’s love to your whole sphere of influence: your family, neighbours, co-workers, circle of friends, and anyone you come in contact with.

Be that beautiful fragrance for others who sorely need some good news. Permeate every place you go with the sweet aroma of Christ.

This priceless perfume can’t be bought: it can only be given away!

© 2020 Lori J. Cartmell. All right reserved.