Fragrant Smell

The olfactory epithelium, the mucus layer in our nostrils, contains some 20million receptors for odor detection. The limbic system, a sensory and memory making aspect of our brain is often called the “emotional memory” because the relapse and power into a specific memory is efficient and effective!

These responses are conditioned by experiences over time. For example, the smell of pumpkin or cider in the fall season; The perfume of flowers in early summer; the dew of rain in the air each spring; or, if you’re at all similar to me, the scent of coffee…Daily. Mom’s home cooking (good or bad, but it can evoke memories!), Dad’s pipe, the smell of a skunk, a baseball mitt, the smell of new guitar strings – that can evoke memories, your freshly-bathed puppy, dish soap and how it reminds you of grandma…. Our created sense of smell is majestic.

2 Corinthians 2:14-15

English Standard Version (ESV)

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God.”

In Scripture here, the fragrance is of knowledge of Christ. When the word Fragrant is used in Scripture, it’s often used with meaning about that which is pleasing to God. Here, as Paul writes, the knowledge of Christ is pleasing.

While knowledge alone doesn’t satisfy, knowledge rests in our minds (for the renewal of each thought – Romans 12:1-2 – and the battle that warrs around us – Ephesians 6:10-17).

Please don’t drive by the final sentence in the Scripture above:

For we are the aroma of Christ to God.

You and I are the aroma – the smell that triggers the limbic system.

We are the aroma of Christ.

To Whom?

To God.

God our Father, is reminded of His most favorite Son, Jesus Christ, in us. Please Correct me if I am wrong, but that is how the sentence is structured and stated, is It not?

Ephesians 5:2 (ESV)

“And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Philippians 4:18 (AMP)

“But I have [your full payment] and more; I have everything I need and am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent me. [They are the] fragrant odor of an offering and sacrifice which God welcomes and in which He delights.”

In these passages, the fragrance is an offering or a sacrifice. Which, again if the word fragrance (and I checked, it’s the same Greek word) has meaning of that which is sweet and pleasing to the Lord, then I come to understand that offerings and sacrifices are pleasing to My Father.

And so we are spurred on to structure our lives: time, days, hearts, words, and actions around that which will be aromatic and pleasing to our Heavenly Father. Yes, I am so beautifully helpless many days, but my heart can be pure in this pursuit and walk with Him.

Hebrews 13:15

“Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”

God, what praise and adoration is due to your name!

Thank you that you think of me as highly as your Son, that in me you are reminded of Him.

May that position be the mantra and beat of my portion and my steps today.

For your name’s sake, I choose from my spirit to acknowledge you with my lips and to raise my attention to Christ’s sacrifice as a result of your love for me. Amen.