Family of God: [FamilyofGod] The Fragrance of Love

The Fragrance of Love

There's a magnet on my refrigerator door with a picture of a little girl holding a long-stemmed rose. Her eyes sparkle as if the aroma from the rose is an absolute delight. On the back of the magnet a friend had written a note to me: "May you be the sweet fragrance of life wherever you go." 2 Corinthians 2:14-16.

I hadn't thought of that magnet in months, until yesterday. I'd been short-tempered at work and had retreated into the restroom to cool down and to repent. As I asked God to forgive me, He reminded me of the magnet and its message.

Yet I wasn't sure I understood how to be that heavenly fragrance. The essence of Christ is love, but what does love smell like?

"Why, it smells like sauteed onions, of course," popped into my mind. I remembered the day that I first discovered that truth. I recalled sitting on the bed. I was exhausted.

Then the most heavenly aroma wafted upstairs, tantalizing me. Sauteed onions. My mom was preparing dinner.

"That's the fragrance of love," I thought. Those sizzling onions spoke of my mom's care and sacrifice for me. I knew that she was tired too, but out of her love for me, she was fixing dinner. No roses, chocolate or perfume ever smelled so sweet as those onions did on that day.

So I began to wonder about how many times the fragrance of love comes to us, and is experienced by us, without ever being recognized. As I meditated on this, a variety of scenes rushed through my mind, and with them, a diversity of scents that carried the message, "I love you."

As a father comes in from the fields after working a 12-hour day to provide for his family, love smells like sweat and fertilizer. Love is also the powdery aroma of fresh-baked, homemade biscuits that a mother prepares early in the morning for her family's breakfast.

It's the meaty aroma of chicken soup brought over by a friend who heard that you were under the weather. Or it can be the faint odor of gasoline on a stranger who stopped to help when you ran out of gas.

As we walk in the principles of God's Word, our lives manifest God's love that draws people to the Savior.

Love has many expressions, many fragrances. But the fragrance of love that is more costly than any other aroma or perfume was made one time, for all time. It is the fragrance of Jesus' love poured out at the cross for us.

I took out my Bible and read once again the Scripture verses cited on my magnet:

"Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? (2 Corinthians 2:14-16 NKJV)

In a Roman triumphal procession, the Roman general would display his treasures and captives amidst a cloud of incense burned for the gods. To the victors, the aroma was sweet; to the captives in the parade, it was the smell of slavery and death. When Christians preach the gospel, it is good news to some and repulsive news to others. Believers recognize the life-giving fragrance of the message. To nonbelievers, however, it smells foul, like death -- their own.

As I read the words of verse 15, "For we are to God the fragrance of Christ. . . . ," I thought of how awesome it is that the Father looks down on us and catches the aroma of Christ whispering that we belong to Him.