This week one day as I visited our son’s family to welcome our newest grandson into the family, our oldest grandson snuggled on my lap while I had a conversation with someone else. At one point I felt him looking at me and when I looked at him he smiled and hugged me. Then he whispered in my ear, “Grandma, you smell like your house.” Now the way he was tucking his nose into my neck I could only assume that was a good thing in his eyes, but the unexpected comment and whole episode continues to hover in my mind.
Whether by choice or chance, we carry an aroma with us always. Most all of us enjoy being around a pleasant aroma, but avoid as much as possible an unpleasant one. And many times an aroma ‘takes us back’ to another place and time—as my odor made my grandson think of our home.
As I’ve been thinking about this these past couple of days since the incident, II Corinthians 2 has been in the forefront of my thoughts. Verses 14-16 read this way in the NIV: “But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?”
Honestly, smelling good all the time is a challenge. After a morning doing yard work in the heat of summer, or even heavy housecleaning, I do not want to be remembered for the way I smell! And so, I intentionally shower as soon as possible and take care of any offensive odor immediately. When I was in my early teens, my mother took me aside and had “THE” talk with me which included a gift of a fragrant container of deodorant. She explained that with my body changes would come issues of odor, and the importance of keeping myself clean and smelling pleasant. That little talk has always remained with me in that I try to be very careful not to offend in any way, but especially in the way I smell.
Fragrance is a gift. A good smell can be relaxing and welcoming. A bad smell can repulse us and keep us away from whatever or whoever is causing the offense. A friend once told me that her memories of Indiana was from one time when they were driving through and apparently it was spring and the fields had just been spread with manure. That smell is part of my memory growing up there as well, but for me, growing up there I knew that it was a short-lived offensive smell that would produce some of the best crops grown anywhere and the sweetest sweet corn in the world. But the important thing is that the smell is what triggers a memory in our hearts.
Such is our reflection of Christ by the ‘fragrance’ we give off (our behavior, actions, reactions, etc.). Just as my grandson thinks of my home when he smells me, I want my actions to be the ‘aroma of Christ’ to those around me. I’m far from perfect and have erred much in my lifetime, but I pray those things can be tucked away as I do the smell of manure on an Indiana field, and the resulting maturity and forgiveness in me be seen as a good thing, creating the very fragrance of Christ to the world around me.
Judi Ann's Nook 