Do I smell good?

image source

The bible talks about fragrance, smells, ripening, and odors. "Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne." (Revelation 8:3)

God smells us, like in this verse:

"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? " (2 Cor 2:14-16)

I think that's funny because God doesn't have a nose, but He can smell. He wanted us to be able to smell, so He formed us with a nose so we could.

I'm intrigued by smells. See, I have no functioning olfactory sense. I cannot smell the world or anything in it. I can't smell my dinner burning, (which happens a lot) nor the grass when it's mowed nor a bakery nor my clothes to see if they are dirty nor the food in the fridge to see if it is safe to eat. I can't smell and I never could. But God can. He can smell me. The unsaved can smell us Christians.

I'm talking metaphorically, of course. But, when you awaken each day and you pray, do you think God will be pleased with your prayers? Are they sweet smelling to Him? Or are they so pale they have no fragrance at all?  Do they have a stench as in Isaiah 3:24 and Amos 4:10?

I'm looking forward to heaven, when I will be able to smell. Won't that be wonderful, when all the paralyzed will walk, all the deaf will hear, all the blind will see. All the autistic children will speak, all the sick will be healed. There are no handicapped parking spots in heaven! But back to the fragrance.

One of the good, old fashioned preachers in 1904 said, "Every saintly life on earth, is a sweet fragrance unto God; and every sinful life, is a stench in his nostrils. As the rose scents the evening air — so a pure life scatters a sweet Christian influence and a knowledge of God throughout the world. The literal translation of 2 Corinthians 2:14 reads thus: "But thanks be to God, who leads me on from place to place in the train of his triumph, to celebrate his victory over the enemies of Christ, and by me sends forth the knowledge of him, a stream of fragrant incense, throughout the world." A saintly life diffuses a sweet, heavenly fragrance throughout the world, and brings a knowledge of God and the nature of his salvation to the minds of men. Let me exhort you, therefore, to a pure life — a life full of devotion and reverence to God. You can make your life, by God's grace, a constant, flowing stream of fragrant incense, whose sweetness will linger long on the air after you have passed to higher realms. So may it be."
[source Charles Ebert Orr]

Tweet