Dear Friends,
Read each of the items in this list slowly. After each one, close your eyes and imagine the aroma. Think of the memories associated with each smell.
-newly mown grass
-burning leaves
-the fragrance of your mother’s perfume (what was the name of it?)
-the musty smell in your attic when you were a kid
-a baby, fresh from the bath, wrapped in a soft blanket
-a rose petal
-your dad’s after-shave (Old Spice?)
-a gardenia corsage
-lilacs in the spring
-motor oil
-a campfire
-turkey, roasting in the oven
-your spouse’s hair, fresh from the shower
-cigar smoke
-the smell of the salt water as you near the ocean
-cow manure in a farmer’s field
-fresh-baked apple pie, hot from the oven
-a newly-cut Christmas tree
-clean sheets that were dried on a clothesline, outdoors
The list could go on and on. You can add your own. Some of these smells may mean nothing to you. Others may bring back either happy or sad memories. Scientists tell us that the sense of smell can elicit some of the most powerful memories. A whiff of burning leaves may bring back a long-forgotten memory of raking in October with your parents and your siblings. A campfire may remind you of your time in the Girl Scouts, or roasting marshmallows with your grandchildren. Widows often wear their deceased husband’s old shirts because the smell brings back happy memories.
The Bible tells of certain aromas that are pleasing to God. When Noah and his family got off the ark, Noah made a burnt offering of some of the animals and it says: “The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma.” Later, when God gave Moses instructions for the tabernacle, the priests were told to burn a ram on the altar: “It is a burnt offering to the Lord, a pleasing aroma.” In the New Testament, Paul wrote to the Corinthians and told them that “we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved.” So you see? You smell, and I smell. We are the aroma of Christ.
Smelly me,
Pastor Bob
